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THE 



RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND : 



BEING THE NARRATIVE OP 



A JOURNEY THROUGH CHINA AND EASTERN 

TIBET TO BURMAH; 



BY THE LATE 

CAPTAIN WILLIAMJ'giLL, R.E. 



CONDENSED 

By EDWARD COLBORNE BABER, 

CHINESE SECRETARY TO H. M.'s LEGATION AT PEKING. 

EDITED, WITH A MEMOIR AND INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, 

By colonel HENRY YULE, C.B., R.E. 



Sfitt^ portrait, Pap, anb SSoobcuts. 









LONDON : 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1883. 



/r./.^^^u^ 




A^ ^. r. ^^ 



*■. . •^ •.• 



«^ on a sketchy also 

<.-.:i - ¥1= -rntcd in December last 

".i:=r. '.firrii.- i P*per circiilating 

^-' -'— '* "-"^c Corpsu This has now 

-y iiifiiucnai cxixacts from my 



-r ■ -•- ._- .»# — , 



.. .•:-:. r..:. r. .;.::::. n x the few which appeared 
:_.--..:.: r.-:r.:; rrom 'in**Tngs which Captain 
.': ::-:- :::ccr hia o^vn supervision from 
._ ^_-;' :-.: . V x-v have been added (^ft-A^x) 
r ::. ..•. .'-^r.^zi • '.-. ivrnrn-jr ^ n;ir7at:ve of Count Sz^henyi's 
. :-•::::■ ?: .'// Fnun 'j^iurt. Vienna i88r;. The portrait 
I :.' ;: !' .Tr.-! -.r.c :r.n::.-;r.ic':t: has been etched by Mr. T. 
!:.:.< J V r^rr.^n :rMn i ;.h*.t';tzrai:h : and the group enslaved 
• \{r. '.' < • cr :< rV'.m :ht: '.iXsi hkcnesa of Captain Gill taken 

H. Yule. 

1 \- « \ . •. 20//. iSS;. 



CONTENTS. 



Pkefatory Note [3-4] 

Tables of Contents 1 5-13] 

List of Illustrations . , [15-16] 

BRIEF MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN GILL, 

Parentage and education, [19-20] ; his first journey to Persia, [20] ; the 
Elburz, Mazanderan, and Kila't-i-Nadir, [21] ; narrow escape, [22] ; 
value of his surveys on the Persian Frontier, [23]. 

Gill stands for Hackney in 1874, unsuccessfully, [24]. His proposal to travel 
in China, [24] ; introduction to Baron F. v. Richthofen and to T. T. 
Cooper, [25] ; his travels in Northern China, [26] ; up the Yang-Tzti, and 
in Ssti-Ch'uan, [26] ; change in plans ; Ta-Chien-Lu and Bishop 
Chauveau, [27] ; by Lit'ang and Bat'ang to Ta-Li-Fu, [28 J. Aboriginal 
tribes ; the Irawadi reached, and so to England, [29], 

Publication of ' River of Golden Sand ' ; Medals from the Royal Geographical 
Society, [29], and from the Paris Geographical Society ; character of 
his work as a traveller, [30]. 

Attempt to visit the Bulgarian theatre of war, [31] ; sent to Constantinople 
on duty ; extract from his Diary, [31-32]. 

Captain Gill goes to join the force at Candahar ; is too late; but joins Sir 
C. Macgregor on expedition against the Maris, [32]. Extracts from 
Diary of his Indian journey, [32-37]. Sir C. Macgregor's character of 
Gill, [37 1. 

He goes to Persia, but finds Merv impracticable, and returns to England, 
[38]. Extracts from Joiunal in Persia, [38-43]. 

His journey to Tripoli, [43-44] ; extracts in Tripoli, [44-47} Proceeds to 
Benghazi, tries to proceed by land to Egypt, and is prevented, [47-48]. 
Returns home by Constantinople and Vienna, [49]. 



THE 



RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND 



[6] CONTENTS. 

Ordered to Egypt on special service, [49]. Last letter to the writer ; 
circumstances of his deputation to Egypt, [50]. Fragments from Diary 
picked up on Desert after his Death, [50-51]. At Alexandria, [51] ; 
Port Said, [52] ; starts for Suez ; Ismailia, [54] ; Suez, [54-56] ; last 
written words, [56-57]. Circumstances of the expedition with Professor 
Palmer into the Desert, [57-58] ; the attack and murder, [59-60]. 
Colonel Warren's inquiries and exertions, [60-61] ; trial and execution 
of some chief culprits, [61]. 

Meeting of the Royal Geographical Society ; Gill's character, and England's 
duty, [61-63]. Interment of the relics in St. Paul's, [63]. Testimonies 
to Gill's virtues and services, [63-66]. Conclusion. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION 

§ I — Origin of this Essay. § 2 — Title of the Book explained, and scope 
of the introduction. § 3 — The great parallel rivers issuing from 
Eastern Tibet ; (i) the Subanshiri ; § 4 (ii) the Dihong, and the identity 
of the great river of Tibet with the great river of Assam. § 5 — Recent 
evidence and comparative discharges. § 6 — Rivers involved in the 
question. § 7 — Theory of identity of Tsanpu and Irawadi. § 8 —General 
grounds for adhesion to orthodox theory. § 9 — (iii) the Dibong ; does 
not come from Tibet. § 10 — (iv) The Lohit or true Brahmaputra ; its 
identity with Gak-bo or Ken-pu of Tibetan geography ; murder of the 
missionaries Krick and Boury. § 11 (v) — The Tchitom-chu or Ku-ts'- 
Kiang, probably a source of the Irawadi. § 12 — (vi) The Lung- 
Ch'uan Kiang ; (vii) The Lu-Kiang or Salwen River. § 13 — (viii) The 
Lan-T'sang or Mekong. § 14— (ix) The Kin-Sha River of Golden 
Sand, or Upper Stream of the Great Yang-Tsii Kiang. § 15— (x) The 
Ya-Lung or Yarlung River ; its confluence with the Kin-Sha. § 16 — (xi) 
The Min-Kiang. § 17 — Its Ramifications in the Plain of Ch'6ng-Tu. 

§ 18 — History of the problem of direct communication between China and 
India ; first Chinese knowledge of India. § 19 — Indications in Greek 
writers. § 20 — Alleged Chinese invasion of India. § 21 — Medieval 
counter-atfempts from India. § 22 — Marco Polo in Western Yun-nan. 
§ 23 — Ta-Li-Fu and the Panthis ; Bham6. § 24 — The Treaty of Tien- 
Tsin. § 25 — French missions on the Tibetan frontier. § 26 — Curious 
episode in connection with these missions. § 27 — Journey of Hue and 
Gabet. § 28 — Klaproth's Description du Tubet. 

§ 29 — Blakiston's exploration of the Upper Yang-Tsii. § 30 — The French 
expedition up the Mekong River, and excursion to Ta-Li under F. 
Gamier. § 31 — Gamier's later efforts and projects. § 32 — T. T. 
Cooper's attempts to reach India from China, and to reach China from 
India. § 33 — Major Sladen's expedition from Bham6 into Yun-nan ; 



CONTENTS, [7] 

its consequences. § 34 — Baron Richthofen's attempt to reach Ta-Li by 
Ning-Yuen-Fu. § 35 — The Abb^ Desgodins. § 36 — The Deputation 
of Augustus Margary, who succeeded in reaching Bhan!6 from China. 
§ 37 — Murder of Margary on the return journey. § 38 — Negotiations 
that followed ; Grosvenor's mission to Yun-nan. § 39 — The agreement 
of Chefoo, and the ' Margary Proclamation. ' § 40 — Reports from the 
Grosvenor mission ; Mr. E. C. Baber's ; his subsequent journeys ; Lord 
Aberdare's summary of his work in presenting the medal of the Royal 
Geographical Society. § 41 — Extract from one of his narratives. § 42 
— Journeys of Protestant missionaries ; Mr. McCarthy, the first non- 
official traveller from China to the Irawadi ; Mr. Cameron's journey on 
Captain Gill's track. 

§ 43— Captain Gill's own joiuneys ; that to the northern mountains of 
Ssti-Ch'uan ; the non-Chinese races of the western frontier. § 44— 
Man-Tzii and Si-Fan ; comparison of numerals. § 45 — Captain Gill 
joined by Mr. Mesny, and his obligations to that gentleman. § 46— 
The journey by Ta-Chien-Lu ; the tea-trade with Tibet ; recent details 
on that subject by Mr. Baber. § 47— Currency of English rupees in 
Tibet ; and of tea-bricks ; singular kinds of tea discovered by Mr. 
Baber. § 48 — Ta-Chien-Lu ; its Tibetan name ; its position. § 49 — 
The Musiis and the LIsiis. § 50 — MSS. in new characters brought from 
those r^ions. 

§ 51 — Nature of work achieved by Captain GilL § 52 — ^Journeys since his ; 
Count Bela Sz^chenyi's. § 53 — Mr. A. R. Colquhoun's. The future? 



CHAPTER I. 

CATHAY, AND THE WAY THITHER. 

PACK 

China resolved on — Preliminary visit to Berlin— Baron Ferdinand v. 
Richthofen — Marseilles, and Voyage in the ' Ava ' — The Straits — 
Chinese Practices first realised — Approach to Saigon — The City 
— Hong Kong reached and quitted— Shanghai and its peculiar Con- 
veyances — The Chinaman's Plait— Voyage to Chi-Fu — ^The Chi-Fu 
Convention — ^Tne Minister Li-Hung-Chang — ^Voyage to the Pei-Ho 
— Difficulties of Navigation up that River— Scenery — Arrival at 
Tien-Tsin — Carts of Northern China — ' Boy ' found — Scenes on the 
Tien-Tsin Bund— Suspicious Wares 1 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE CITY OF CAMBALUa 

Departure from Tien-Tsin — Rural Characteristics — Pictures by the 
Way — Chinese Hostelry — The ' Kang ' : Fittings and Furniture — 
Approach to Peking — Foreigners as seen by Chinese eyes — ^The 



[8] CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



British Legation — Visit to the Temple of Heaven — A Chinese Fair 
— Crambe Repetita — Chinese Dinners — Visit to the Summer Palace 
— Needless Havoc — Great Bell — Modern Cambaluc. . . . 17 



CHAPTER III. 

A CYCLE OF CATHAY. 

Cradle of the Chinese Nation — Their Settlement in Shan-Si — Charac- 
teristics of Chinese History — Manifold Invasions of China, but 
Chinese Individuality always predominates — Imagination essential 
to Advancement, but the Chinese have it not — Inventions ascribed 

• to Them — Stoppage of Development — China for the Chinese — 
Foreign Help Inevitable — The Woo-Sung Railway — Defects of 
Chinese Character — Pigeon-English — Perverse Employment of it — 
Preparations again for Travel — Detail of Packages — Additions to 
our Following. 30 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE OCEAN RIVER. 

Start up the Yang-Tzii — Names of the Great River — ^The Dog Tib, 
and his ethnological perspicacity — The Grand Canal — ^Arrival at 
Hankow — Manufacture of Brick-Tea — Tea in Chinese Inns — 
H.M.S. Kestrel — Boat engaged for Upper Yang-Tzti — ^The Lady 
Skipper and her Craft — Our Departure — Chinese Fuel — Our Eccen- 
tricities in Chinese Eyes — The New Year Festival — Chinese View of 
the Wind-points — ^Aspects of the River — ^Vicissitudes of Tracking — 
Great Bend — Wild Geese — Rice as Food — The Hills Entered — 
Walks Ashore — Population dense only on the River — Passage in a 
Cotton Boat — The Telescope Puzzles — Arrival at I-Chang. . . 44 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GORGES OF THE GREAT RIVER. 

The I-Ch'ang Mob — Chinese Unreason — Departure from I-Ch'ang, 
and Adieu to English Faces — The Gorges Entered — ^Vicissitudes 
of Ascent — Scenery of the Gorges — Preparation for the Rapids — 
Ascent of Rapids — Yang-Tzii Life-boats — Dangers of the Rapids — 
View at Ch'ing-Tan — Ch'ing-Tan Rapid — ^Waiting our Turn — 
Pilots of the Rapid — Successful Ascent — Mode of Tracking — Long 
Gorge of Wu-Shan — Weird and Gloomy Aspect — Kuei-Chou-Fu — 
Method of Salt Manufacture — Extraordinary Richness of Soil — 
Chinese Skill in Agriculture Overrated — Their True Excellence is in 
Industry — St. George's Island — Cataplasm for a Stove-in Junk — 
The River of Golden Sand at Last— The Use of the Great Sculls . 59 



CONTENTS. [9] 



CHAPTER VI. 

• CH'UNG-CH'ING to CH'iNG-TU-FU. 

PAGE 

Arrival at Ch'ung-Ch'iDg — M. Prov6t, Monsigr. Desflfiches, and the 
French Missionaries : Their Cordiality — The Last of our Lady- 
Skipper — ^We are satirised in verse, and enabled to see ourselves as 
others see us — News of Tibet — Unfavourable Change of Feeling in 
Tibet as to Admission of Europeans — Diffictdties of Mr. Baber's 
Photographer — Preparations to start for Ch'6ng-Tu — Elaborate 
Coolie Contract — Chinese Commercial Probity — Baggage Arrange- 
ments — Adieu to Baber — Good Manners of Ssii-Ch'uan Folk — 
Jung-Ch'ang-Hsien — Characteristics of a Restaurant— Coolies at 
their Meal — Realistic Art — Want of Ideality in Chinese Character 
— The Brine Town of Tztl-Liu-Ch'ing — ^The Christian Landlord — 
The Brine-wells and Fire-wells — Mode of Boring and of Drawing 
the Brine— Further Details and Out-turn of Salt — Politeness of the 
People — Red Basin of Sstl-Ch'uan. ...... 82 



CHAPTER VIL 

A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS. 

Ch'^ng-Tu to Sung-P'an-T'ing. 

Arrival at Ch'6ng-Tu— Public Examinations — ^Arrangements with Mr. 
Mesny — Pleasures of French Society — Proposed Excursion to the 
North— The Man-Tztl, or Barbarian Tribes— Leave Ch'^ng-Tu-Fu 
— The Escort — Irrigated and Wooded Country— Halt at Kuan- 
Hsien— Frantic Curiosity of People, but no Incivility — Irrigation 
Works— Coal-beds— Hsin-Wfin-P'ing—W6n-Ch'uan-Hsien — First 
Man-Tzti Village — Pan-Ch'iao— Traces of War — Relentless Ad- 
vance of Chinese — Miraculous Sand Ridge— Hsin-Pu-Kuan — 
Rapid Spread of the Potato— Excursion to Li-Fan-Fu in the Man- 
Tztl Hills — Scenes that recall the Elburz — Carefully-made Hill 
Road— The • Sanga ' of the Himalayas— Village of Ku-Ch'^ng— 
Peat Streams — Musk Deer— Arrival at Li-Fan-Fu — ^The Search for a 
Man-Tzti Village— Man-Tztl here a Term of Reproach — ^The I-Ran 
Tribes and their Language— Return to Hsin-Pu-Kuan-r-Resume 
Valley of Hsi-Ho (or ' Min River 'j—Wen-Ch'Sng— The Himalayan 
Haul-Bridge in Use — Polite Curiosity at Ma-Chou — Grandeur of 
the ' Nine Nails ' Mountain — The Su-Mu, or White Barbarians — 
Alpine Scenery — Tieh-Chi-Ying — The Yak seen at last — Glorious 
Mountain View (Mount Shih-Pan-Fang) — Ngan-Hua-Kuan — Deli- 
cious Tea — Smoking in Sstl-Ch'uan — Country of the Si-Fan — Sung- 
P'an-T'ing — Reports of Game— Crops — Butter, Fish, Yak-Beef — 
Bitter Alpine Winds — Foreign Remedies Appreciated — The Tra- 
veller quits the Valley ('Min River') and turns Eastward — Si-Fan 



[lo] CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Lamassery — Herds of Cattle and Yaks — Desolate Hospice at F6ng- 
Tung-Kuan — Tibetan Dogs — Reported Terrors of the Snow- Passes 
— Summit of the Plateau of the Hsiieh-Shan — Descent begins — 
Forest Destruction — ^Verdure of Eastern Slopes — SplendM Azaleas 
— Slaughter by the Si-Fan — Luxuriant Gorges— Miracle-Cave — 
Hsiao-Ho-Ying — Iron Suspension Bridge — Mauvais Pas — Lung- 
An-Fu— P'ing-I-Pu— Boat Descent of River (Ta-Ho)— End of 
Excursion 102 



CHAPTER VIII. 

CH'iNG-TU, AND THE ROAD TO TIBET. 

Account of Ch'^ng-Tu, as given by Marco Polo — ^And by Padre 
Martin Martini — Description of the Modern City — The Rivers, 
and Probable Changes — Destruction of Documents — Arrival of Mr. 
Mesny — Political Aspects compel Change in Traveller's intended 
Route — Decision . to Travel Homeward viA Bat'ang and Bham6 — 
Visit to the Great Monastery of Wen-Shu- Yiian — Its Buildings and 
Curiosities — Chapel of Meditation — ^Antiquities of Ch'6ng-Tu— 
Invitation to a Picnic— Notable Guests — The Dinner and its 
Peculiarities — Table Manners and Customs — Threatenings of 
DroughJ — ' Organisation of Departure' — To Shuang- Liu— Super- 
stition as to Fires in Towns — Vast Fertility of Country — Personal 
Criticisms on Travellers — Chinese Idea of Foreigners in general — 
First Sight of the Mountains — Fine Bridge on the Nan-Ho — Great 
Coolie-loads — Tibetan Embassy — Pai-Chang-Yi — Paved Road in 
Decay — Ya-Chou-Fu — Its Commercial Importance — Cake-Tea — 
Coolies employed on the Traffic — Traffic from Yiin-Nan — Moun- 
tains begin to close round — The Little Pass — Alleged Terrors of 
the Hills— The Great Pass and the T'ai-Hsiang Pass— 'Straw- 
Sandal Flat ' — Ching-Chi-Hsien — Hua-Ling-P'ing — River of Ta- 
Chien-Lu — Bridge swept away — Lu-Ting-Chiao and its Iron Sus- 
pension bridge — Dominoes — Character of People of Ssti-Ch'uan — 
Hsiao-P'eng-Pa — Scantier Vegetation — Arrival at Ta-Chien-Lu . 140 



CHAPTER IX. 

TA-CHIEN-LU. 

Ta-Chien-Lu — Native King — Indian Rupees Current — The Place and 
People — ' Om Mani Pemi Hom ! ' — A House found for us — The 
Local Government — ^Transport Arrangements — The Lamas and 
the Dalai Lama — The Prayer-Cylinder and the Multiform Mani 
Inscriptions — The Lama Ambassadors — Menaces of our Fate if we 
entered Tibet — The Servants begin to Quail — Chin-Tai, his Greed 
and his Tempers — Heavy Provisioning for the Journey — Contrast 
of Tibetan and Chinese Habits— Of Tibetan Simplicity of Fare 



CONTENTS, [ii] 



with Chinese Variety — Kindly aid rendered by the late Bishop 
Chauveau — The New Ma-Fu — ^Visit to a Lamassery — Currency for 
the Journey — The Tibetan's Inseparable Wooden Cup — Tib left 
behind— Fresh Selection of Nags — Fatality of Small-pox in Tibet. 



PAGE 



169 



CHAPTER X. 

THE GREAT PLATEAU. 

I. Ta-Chien-Lu to Lit'ang. 

The Departure from Ta-Chien-Lu — The Cavalcade described — A 
Supper of Tsanba — Village of Cheh-toh — A Wreck of the Crockery 
— Tibetan Salutation — Delicious air — Half-bred Yaks — Splendid 
Alpine Pastures— Wild Fruits— The Sacred Cairn— Ti-zu— Delight- 
ful al fresco Breakfast — A I<and of Milk and Butter — Hot Spring — 
The Buttered-Tea Chum — ^Tsanba — Tibetan Houses — ^An-niang — 
Wild Flowers — Roadside Groups from the Fair — A Gallop over 
Turf — Pass of Ka-Ji-La — Magnificent Alpine Prospect — The 
' King of Mountains ' — Pine Forests — Huang-Fu — Descent towards 
the Ya-Lung River — ^Appearance of Green Parrots — Ho-K'ou or 
Nia-chuka, on the Ya-Limg River — Ferry over the Ya-Lung — Re- 
ascent towards the Plateau — Mah-geh-chung — A ' Medicine Moim- 
tain ' — Crest of the Ra-ma Pass — Female Decorations — Lit'ang- 
Ngoloh — Description of House and Appliances — Domestic Sketches 
— Deh-re Pass — The Rhubarb Plant — Rarefied Atmosphere — Pass 
of Wang-gi — Abundance of Supplies — Shie-gi Pass — ^Tbe Surong 
Mountains — Lit'ang in View — Arrival there 190 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GREAT PLATEAU. 

2. Lit'ang to Bat'ang* 

Departure— Quit the Lit'ang Plain— High Pass of Nga-ra-la-Ka— 
Cold Granite Region— Alarms of Robbers— Dzong-da— Pine-clad 
Valleys again — ^The Cairns and Mani Inscriptions — Stupendous 
Alpine Scene— The vast snowy Peak of Nen-da— The Guide s 
head turned with Wonder — Sublime Aspect of the Mountains — 
Rhododendrons— Striking Picture— The J'ra-ka-La— Savage Deso- 
lation — Our Guide — ^Welcome on Arrival at Bat'ang— Chao the 
Magistrate, and Favourable Impressions — ^Abb^ Desgodins — Dis- 
charge of our Suite— The Name of Bat'ang— The Plain— Possibili- 
ties of Navigation on the Rivers— Earthquakes— The Great Lamas- 
sery— Number of such— Causes that fill them— The Lamas a Curse 
to the Country— Eccentric Chinese System of Accounts— Slavery 
and Cattle-holding— Gradual Depopulation of Tibet— Hostility of 
the Lamas— Alleged Muster to Bar our Advante. 207 



[12] CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER XII. 

REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND. 

1. Bat'ang to Sha-Lu. 

PAGE 

Departure from Bat'ang — Adieux to MM. Desgodins and Biet — Broad 
Features of the Geography, and Relation between Road and 
Rivers — Valley of the Chin-Sha or Golden Sand — A False Alarm — 
Journey across the Chin-Sha — Fine Scenery of the Kong-tze-ka 
Pass — Quarters at Jang-ba — Growth of our Escort — Armed Opposi- 
tion on the Lassa Road — The River of Kiang-ka — Hospitable 
People — Desolated Country — Chti-sung-dho (Cooper's — ' Jessun- 
dee ')— Tsaleh— ' The Boy the Father of the Man '—Water-shed 
between the Chin-Sha and the Lan-T'sang — Camping Ground of 
Lung-zung-nang — The Bamboo seen again — The Gorge of Dong — 
Parallel Fissures from North to South — ^The Town of A-tun-tztl — 
Evil Character of A-tun-tzii — Prevalence of Goitre — Water Analy- 
sis — Farewell Visits from Chao and the Native Chief — Ceremonies 
of Adieu — Prevalence of Opium-smoking in Yiin-Nan — Long and 
Moist March. . , 224 

CHAPTER XIII. 

REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND. 

2. Sha-Lu to Ta-Li-Fu. 

Sha-Lu — Big Tibetan Dog — City of Chien-Ch'uan-Chou— A Hen- 
pecked Warrior — Fair Words of the Chou — Road through Popu- 
lous Rice-lands — Lake Basins — Opium-smoking — Damp and Dreary 
Aspects — The Erh-Hai, or Lake of Ta-Li — Road along the Lake 
Shore— Arrival at Ta-Li-Fu— P6re Leguilcher— The Plain of Ta- 
Li — The Mahometans — Visits — General Yang — Departure from 
Ta-Li 240 



CHAPTER XIV. 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS 

MARGARY. 

I. ' The Land of the Gold Teeth. ' 

Marco Polo's Cakes of Salt — Paucity of Present Traffic on Road — 
Devastated Country — Yang-Pi River — Chain Suspension-bridge — 
Perversities of the Path— T'ai-P'ing-P'u- Lofty Hamlet of Tou- 
Po-Shao — Dearth of Population — Traces of War— Chestnut and 
Oak Woods — Descent to Plain of Yung-P'ing-Hsien — The Town 
destroyed — View of the Mekong or Lan-T'sang River — Chain 



CONTENTS. [13] 

PAGE 

Bridge across it — Desperate Ascent — ^Ta-Li-Shao^Pan-Ch'iao— 
Rice Macaroni — Polo's Salt Loaves again — His ' Vochan ' and the 
' Parlous Fight ' there — Yung-Chang-Fu — A General on the March 
— ^A Quarrel Imminent, but the General is drawn off— Stones and 
Beads brought for Sale — Recent Plague on the Road , , . 256 



CHAPTER XV. 

IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF MARCO POLO AND OF AUGUSTUS 

MARGARY. 

2. The Marches of the Kingdom of Mien. 

Departure from Yimg-Ch'ang — Fang-Ma-Ch'ang — Pestiferous Valley 
of the Lu-Ch|jang or Salwen River — Passage by Chain Bridge — 
Steep Ascent to Ho-Mu-Shu — Old Custom of ' Wappenshaw ' and 
Military Tests — The Lung-Chiang or Shw^-li River — Salutes by the 
Way— A Celt for Sale— The City of T'6ng-Yiieh, or Momien— 
Things better managed in Sstl-Ch'uan — The Chi-Fu Convention — 
Nan-Tien — Reception by a Shan Lady — Her Costume — First 
Burmese Priests — Change of Scenery — Passage of the Ta-ping 
River — First Burmese Pagoda — Lovely Scene near Chan-Ta — 
Chan-Ta (Sanda), and the Chief there — Oppressions of Chinese — 
Festival of Chan-Ta — Shan Pictures by the Way — Shan and 
Kakyen Figures — Roadside Scenes in Ta-ping Valley — Bamboos 
and Birds by the Way — 'Lymg Litigants — T'ai-P'ing-Chieh, or 
Kara-hokah — Reach Chinese Frontier — Town of Man-Yiin {' Man- 
w)me ') — ^Visit from Notorious Li-Sieh-Tai — Treatment at Man-Yiin 
— The Pa-I People — English Goods in Bazar— Letter of Welcom e 
from Mr. Cooper — Scene of the Murder of Augustus Margary — ^The 
Kakyen Country — ^A Shot at the Party ; only tentative — Kakyen 
Huts — Meddling with the Spirits' Corner — Fire got by Air-com- 
pression — Buffalo Beef — Grand Forest Scenery — Bamboos and 
Potatoes — ^An Imprudent Halt to Cook — A Venture in the Forest — 
Perils from Ants and from Bullies — ^Would-be Leviers of Blackmail 
— Benighted — A Welcome Rencontre— Cooper's Messengers and 
Stores — A Burmese Po-6 or Ballet— Embark on Bham6 River — 
The Irawadi Disappointing — Kindly Welcome from English Agent 
at Bham6 — ^Alas, poor Cooper !— Bham6 to Dover — The Journey 
Ended 273 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PLATES. 

Portrait of CaptXin Gill, etched by T. Blake Wirg- 
man, from a Photograph done at Palermo, by Incorpora, 
October iSSi 



Frontispiece 



Group of Captain Gill and his Servants in 
Tripoli (viz. KhalIl AtIk, Dragoman ; Hajji 
Abdulla of Khartum, Cook \ and Hajji Ab- 
dulla of Tripoli, Groom), From a Photograph by pagb 

R. Ellis done at Malta, May 1882 .... ^0 face [48] 



Tablet erected by the State in crypt of 
St. Paul's, in memory of Professor Palmer, 
Captain Gill, and Lieutenant Charrington. 
Photo-lithograph by Mr. W, Grigg .... 



To/ollow [66] 



WO O DC UTS. 

Treadmill— Irrigation Wheel ^ . . . 
Portrait op Lieutenant Francis Garnier . 
T. T. Cooper / . 
BaroN Ferdinand v. Richthofen 
,, E. Colborne Baber 

Count Bela Sz^chenyi 

( These five by Mr. G. Pearson. ) 

Cart crossing Ferry near Peking 

Diagram — System of Hanging Doors . . . . 
Travellers' Boat on YANG-TztJ, above I-Chang . 
Mouth of Niu-Kan Gorge 

' All the cuts not otherwise specified are by Mr. Cooper. 



Back of title 

[104I 
[108] 
[III] 

[119] 
[138] 



I 

20 

59 
67 



[i6J LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Diagrams of Salt-Works 74 75 

Roadside Joss-house, in SsO-Ch'uan 82 

Grave near Ch'ung-Ch'ing 91 

Man-TzO Village, near Wen-Ch'uan-Hsien .... 102 

Gorge of Li-Fan-Fu 117 

Haul-bridge near Mao-Chou 121 

Mill at Li-Fan-Fu 139 

Tibetan Bridge over Torrent 140 

Diagram of Travelling Curtains ^ 154 

Ta-Chien-Lu [from Lieutenant Kreitners Work, Im Femen Osten) 169 

Manx String 175 

Tibetan Chodten 190 

The Mountain Nen-da 207 

Portrait of PfeRE Desgodins {from Lieutenant Kreitner's Work). 224 

Sundry Objects of Tibetan Art (from the same) . . . 240 

A Western Chinese Brave 256 

Bridge of Western China, identical with the Himalayan Sanga 273 

Diagram Section of Lu-Ch'iang Valley .... 275 

Kakyen Hut 304 

Map, Skeleton, of Rivers between Tebp:l and China To face [67] 
Map of China, with Captain Gill's Routes At end of volume 



MEMOIR OF WILLIAM GILL 



Und zu mir selber sprach ich dann : 

Was schmiickt den Jungling^ ehrt den Mann? 

Was leisteten die tapfem Helden 

Von denen uns die Lieder melden. 

Die zu der Gdtter Glanz und Ruhm 

Erhub das blinde Heidenthum ? 

Sie reinigien von Ungeheuem 

Die Welt in kilhnen Abentheuem^ 

Begegneten in Kampf dem Leu^n 

Und rangen mil dem Minotauren 

Die armen Opfer zu be/rein, 

Und liessen sick das Blut nicht dauren, 

Schiller. 



A BRIEF MEMOIR 

OF 

CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, R.E 



William John Gill was born in 1843 ^^ Bangalore, where 
his father, the late Major Robert Gill, of the Madras Army, 
then held a temporary staff appointment. Major Gill, an 
accomplished artist, was the author of those remarkable 
copies of ancient paintings on the walls of the Ajanta cave- 
temples which used to adorn the Crystal Palace at Syden- 
ham, to which they had been lent by the Court of East 
India Directors, and the destruction of which by the fire 
there, some fourteen or fifteen years ago, was not the least 
of the losses caused by that calamity. 

William Gill was educated at Brighton College, where 
one of his contemporaries was Augustus Margary, his 
precursor in travel from China to the Irawadi, and also in 
the nature of his death. 

His character, even in those early days, was resolute, 
serious, as well as pure ; he was bent on doing his duty and 
making the best use of his time. His sister writes : — 

... When quite a young boy at Brighton College, he asked 
me to illuminate on a large card the words England expects 
every man to do his duty. This he had hanging on the wall of 
his bedroom. 

She mentions also that he had arranged an alarum with 
mechanism to pull the clothes off him at a very early hour, 
and he was habitually at work long before breakfast. 



[20] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

He obtained an entrance into the Royal Military 
Academy, passing out with his commission in the Royal 
Engineers in 1864. In September, 1869, he went to India, 
and served there till March, 1871. Just before his return, a 
distant relation of his mother, who had no family of his 
own, left Lieutenant Gill a very handsome fortune. Hand- 
some fortunes do not abound in the Corps, and this circum- 
stance was the - subject of various stories more or less 
mythical.* It enabled Gill for the rest of his too brief 
career to give scope to the intense desire for exploration and 
adventure which was born with him, but which was on every 
opportunity turned by him into that channel which seemed 
best calculated to serve the need of England at the time. 

The first occasion of his becoming known as a traveller 
was when he joined Colonel V. Baker in that journey to 
Persia of which an account was published by the latter, 
early in 1876, under the title of * Clouds in the East* The 
journey occupied from April, 1873, to the end of that year. 
The party travelled to Tiflis and Baku, and thence across 
the Caspian to Ashurada and Astrabad. Finding no possi- 
bility of exploring the Atrek valley, as they desired, from 
this quarter, they proceeded to Teheran, visiting on the way 
that famous palace of Shah Abbas at Ashraf, regarding 
whose Court there we have such interesting details from 
Pietro della Valle (16 18), that rare phenomenon among 
travellers, and, indeed, among writers of any kind, who is 

* Mr. G. H. Sawtell, Captain Gill's executor, has kindly furnished 
the following note at my request : *Alison Maclellan, a daughter of 
the then Lord Kirkcudbright, about 1732 married John Rutherford, a 
son of the then Lord Rutherford, Among their grandchildren in one 
branch was John Rutherford, a merchant, who died 60 years ago, leav- 
ing a considerable fortune. In another branch were many daughters, 
one of whom married Mr. Heusch, a Dutch merchant, while another 
married a Mr. Lefevre, whose daughter was Mrs. Gill's mother. Frederick 
Heusch of Wimbledon, the grandson of the Mr. Heusch just mentioned, 
was the testator under whose will Captain Gill benefited. Frederick 
Heusch's mother had inherited from her cousin, John Rutherford, about 
half of his property. There was, as far as I can ascertain, no male 
relative of Mr. Heusch, when he died, nearer than Captain Gill. The 
peerage books do not clearly bear out the statement of Mrs. Gill's 
mother. The peerages both of Kirkcudbright and Rutherford were 
contested by many claimants in last century. ' 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [21] 

always long — as long as Richardson's novels— but never 
wearisome. The first course of their travels from Teheran 
was among the Elburz mountains north of that city, crossing 
the range by a pass 12,000 feet in height, in search of ibex 
and moufflon. 

Here is a passage from Gill's account referred to below — 

The tops of these mountains are covered with loose stones. 
In the winter the cold is of course intense at these immense 
altitudes, the water in the numerous courses freezes, and the 
expansion bursts the rock into innumerable fragments. In 
these solitudes (where down below lies the vast and arid plain 
stretching towards the horizon, invisible in the dim haze of the 
desert) is the home of the ibex and moufflon ; and often, when 
no other sound is to be heara but the scream of an eagle 
astonished at the unwonted sight of a human being, the metallic 
ring of the loose stones rolling down the mountain-side attracts 
the sportsman's notice to a herd of these animals, dashing up 
what would appear an almost impassable precipice. 

Then, skirting the great mountain Demavend, they 
descended again into the dense forests of Mazanderan, 
and recrossing the mountains to Damghan, followed that 
line of road along the northern border of the Desert of 
Khorasan, which has been traced by many a traveller from 
Marco Polo to Baillie Fraser, and in later years. After 
visiting Meshhed they struck north to Kila't, the famous 
stronghold of Nadir Shah. 

Kila't (says Gill) is one of the most remarkable places in 
the world ; it is a natural fortress, and if anything in the world 
can be impregnable it is certainly Kila't. The description of 
the Happy Valley in the romance of * Rasselas ' might almost 
be taken for it. It is a large valley, surrounded on all sides by 
mountains absolutely inaccessible from the outside. At the 
tops of these mountains can be seen perpendicular cliffs, §£>me 
200 or 300 feet high. There are ^v^ entrances to the valley, 
through narrow gorges only two or three yards wide, the cliffs 
on each side towering up like walls. The valley, besides a 
stream that runs through it, is plentifully supplied with water 
from springs. . . . The inhabitants have their herds, and culti- 
vate their com all in the valley, and consequently they could 
not be starved out. 



[22] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

From this they passed on to the Darah-gaz district, a 
fertile tract on the northern skirt ot the mountains that look 
down on the Turcoman steppes, inhabited by an old colony 
of Kurds, and then flourishing under the wise and vigorous 
rule of tl\eir hereditary chief Ilayar Khan. Here Gill was 
obliged to rest to recover from a strange gun accident which 
had nearly cut short his career. 

The hillside was broken by steep and rocky ravines, and one 
had to descend very carefully, creeping down over sloping slabs 

of rock. G , it appears, was making his way down one of 

these places with his gun loaded, but on half-cock, and he had 
rested it for a moment on a projecting ledge, when, to his 
horror, it suddenly slipped, and, sliding down muzzle upwards, 
went off, the discharge being straight at him within three 
yards. . . . One of his boots (high brown leather riding boots), 
was cut all to pieces by the shot, and it was an anxious time 
until we got them off" and examined the injury. . . . Neither 
vein nor artery had been injured. It was a most merciful 
escape. — Clouds in the East, pp. 200-201. 

In the same work (p. 224) the author bears testimony to 
his companion's habitual diligence in survey : — 

G was most careful and hardworking in his observations, 

and for many hundreds of miles never missed an angle in the 
road he followed, ever marching on, compass and note-book in 
hand. 

Recrossing the great frontier range (Kuren-dagh) the 
travellers explored the upper course of the Atrek, and thence 
went south-west by Jajirm to Shahriid, and rejoined the 
high road from Meshhed to Teheran. 

Lieutenant Gill read a short but interesting paper on this 
journey at the Belfast meeting of the British Association in 
1874. This was published in that valuable but now defunct 
periodical, the * Geograpnical Magazine ' (October of that 
year), accompanied by a map which embodied Lieutenant 
Gill's own route-surveys. These surveys, though rough and 
made under great difficulties, embraced valuable additions 
to correct geographical knowledge. Major (now Sir Oliver) 
St. John was at the time of the traveller's return engaged at 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [23] 

the India Office in compiling a new map of Persia, and he has 
testified warmly to the great advantage he derived from Gill's 
MS. routes. Nadir's Kila't had been visited apparently by Sir 
John M'Neill, in 1838, by the late Colonel Beake,^ and some 
others ; but so little had been ascertained about its true posi- 
tion that till Gill's return it appeared in duplicate —not a very 
uncommon phenomenon in tentative geography — and in two 
different positions on our maps. Darah-gaz, too, if laid down 
at all in previous maps, was entered as a town or village, 
instead of an extensive and flourishing district forming a sepa- 
rate Government.^ The corrections which Baker and Gill 
made as to the true position and course of the Atrek were still 
more important in their political bearing. This matter is 
summarised in a note from Sir Oliver St. John as follows : — 

About 1869-70 the Russians obtained from the Shah a 
recognition of their claim to all territory on the eastern shore 
of the Caspian north of the Atrek river. The Persians (no 
doubt with truth) affirmed subsequently that their recognition 
was confined to the littoral, while the Russians contended that 
their right to all districts north of the Atrek throughout its 
course had been acknowledged. 

Previous to Gill's journey the Atrek had been represented on 
our maps as a stream of the orthodox type with numerous 
affluents on both banks ; or as a stream with few affluents on 
the north and many on the south. Inhabited Persian districts 
were all placed on the south bank ; and taking the Russian 
definition of their treaty, it looked as if nothing but bare moun- 
tain and barren desert had been given them. But Gill and 

2 Colonel Beake was a gentleman whose personal history, if written 
down, would have made a book of very uncommon interest. Originally 
a subaltern in the Bengal Army, he afterwards served under Abbas 
Mirza, in Khorasan. That prince made him a grant of the famous 
turquoise mines of Nishapur, but the grantee never was able to realise 
the concession ! In his latter years Colonel Beake was engaged in 
various mining projects in the Kingdom of Naples, and in Sicily. The 
p esent writer once travelled with him from Palermo to London, and 
was entertained the whole way by his personal reminiscences, told with 
extraordinary vivacity. Colonel Beake was a brother of the late well- 
known Dr. Beke, but they differed about many things, including even 
the spelling of their names. 

* Baillie Fraser on both his journeys to Khorasan was prevented 
from visiting Kila't. On his second journey (1833) he reached Darah- 
gaz, but on this journey he carried no instruments. 



[24j A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

Baker found that the main stream of the Atrek had no southern 
affluents, but many northern ones, and that its north bank for 
a considerable distance from its source was lined with Persian 
towns and villages. One entire district, Darah-Gaz, lying quite 
clear of the river to the north, was practically discovered by 
them. The result was that we were able to back up the 
Persians in their interpretation of the understanding about 
the Atrek by appealing to facts, and that the Russians at last 
modified their claim. 

The next enterprise on which the young officer embarked 
was of a very different character. In the spring of 1874, 
after the Chief Engineer of the State had laid that unexpected 
petard of dissolution by which himself and all his crew were 
hoist, Lieutenant Gill presented himself to the metropolitan 
borough of Hackney as a Conservative candidate. He was 
at the bottom of the poll, which ran : Reed, 6,968 ; Holms, 
6,893 ; Gill, 6,310. But in consequence of mismanagement 
in the ballot, then first introduced, the election was invali- 
dated. When the new election took place three months 
later. Gill stood again against Mr. Fawcett and Mr. Holms, 
and was again defeated, though carrying the respectable 
number of 8,994 votes. Captain Gill stood for Nottingham 
at the general election six years later, with similar bad suc- 
cess ; and the whole process on that occasion so wearied and 
disgusted him that he said he would never try the experiment 
again. 

He has not been forgotten at Hackney, and after the 
announcement of his loss, eight years later, a letter reached 
his family from that borough, expressing this in a very kindly 
way. 

GilFs name as that of a brother officer was well known 
to me, through the travels in Persia and the Hackney 
rejection, but we had never met till one day, in May 1876, 
when he visited me at the India Office, and announced that 
he was meditating an expedition by way of Western China 
into either Tibet or Eastern Turkestan, and wished to con- 
sult me. One of the suggestions made was to make Marco 
Polo his bosom friend, and this he cherished and acted 
upon throughout his travels ; but I also introduced him to 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [25] 

two men who could advise him from singular practical ex- 
perience — I mean Baron Ferdinand v. Richthofen and Mr. 
T. T. Cooper. 

Of Baron Richthofen I will venture to quote words 
written on another occasion : — 

It is true that the announcement of his presence at the 
evening meetings (of the Royal Geographical Society) would 
draw no crowds to the doors ; no extra police would be required 
to keep the access ; no great nobles would interest themselves 
about engaging St. James's Hall for his reception, . . . but it is 
a fact that in his person are combined the great traveller, the 
great physical geographer, and the accomplished writer, in a 
degree unknown since Humboldt's best days. In the actual 
extent of his journeys in China, he has covered more ground 
than any other traveller of note, and he has mapped as he went. 
His faculty of applying his geological knowledge to the physical 
geography of the country he traverses is very remarkable, but 
not more so than his power of lucid and interesting exposition. 

Gill went to Berlin to visit him, and the fullness and 
cordiality with which his advice and information were com- 
municated are recorded by Gill near the beginning of the 
narrative of his own travels in China : — 

Hour after hour he gave up his valuable time to me, and 
opened volumes from his rich store of information. . . . Baron 
von Richthofen possesses in a remarkable manner the faculty of 
gathering up the details presented to his view ; putting them 
together and generalising on them with rare judgment ; forming 
out of what would be to a lesser genius but scattered and un- 
intelligible fragments, a uniform and comprehensive whole. . . . 
not one hint was given me that did not subsequently prove its 
value ; his kind thoughts for my comfort and amusement were 
never ceasing, and his refined and cultivated intellect and genial 
manner rendered the recollections of my stay in the German 
capital some of the most pleasant in my life. — Vol. i. p. 3. 

T. T. Cooper was far from any pretension to be classed 
as a traveller with Richthofen, but he was one of the most 
adventurous explorers of our time ; he was the first, with 
the exception of the French missionary priests, to penetrate 
the mountains west of Szechuen \ and had indeed made 



[26] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

two bold attempts, one from that side and a second from 
the side of Assam, to force that Tibetan barrier which re- 
mains yet unpierced between India and China. It is 
curious that whilst Mr. Cooper was one of the last persons 
with whom Lieutenant Gill took counsel (it was in my room 
at the India Office) regarding his journey, before quitting 
England, it was the same Cooper who received the traveller 
with open arms and hearty hospitality at Bhamb on the 
Irawadi, when he emerged from the wilds of the Chinese 
frontier in November, 1877. A few months later (April 
24, 1878) poor Cooper, in his solitary residence at Bhamb, 
was murdered by a soldier of his sepoy guard. 

Gill reached Peking September 21, 1876, and wasted no 
time there, for on the 25th he had already entered on his 
first journey in China. This, which was made in the north 
of Pechili to the borders of Liaotung and the sea- terminus 
of the Great Wall, was but a trial of his pinions ; the next 
journey was one of far larger scope. It began with the ascent 
of the Y^ng-Tzii as far as Ch'ung-Ch'ing in Ssii-Ch'uan, 
and so far he had the best companion probably that he 
could have found in all China, Mr. Edward Colborne Baber, 
now Chinese Secretary to our Embassy. From Ch*ung- 
Ch'ing he travelled to Ch'^ng-Tu-Fu, the famous capital of 
Ssu-Ch'uan. Here he had to delay his advance some time, 
in hope of being joined by Mr. Mesny, a Jerseyman, who 
had spent many years in the interior of China in the service 
of the Chinese Government. The delay was spent in an 
excursion from Ch'eng-Tu to the Alps in the north of 
Ssti-Ch'uan, those * Min Mountains ' of the ancient Yii-Kung, 
from which the great Kiang of the Chinese, *the River' 
par excellence (for this, and not the Kinsha from Tibet and 
Yun-nan, they regard as the main stream), flows down into 
Ssu-Ch'uan. So far as I know, no traveller had preceded 
Gill in that part of China. The journey formed a loop of 
some 400 miles, and occupied a month or more. On the 
day after his return to Ch'eng-Tu Mr. Mesny appeared. 

Hitherto Gill's aspirations had been directed to a 
journey through North-West China to Kashgaria and so 
to Europe. But the troubled aspect of affairs between 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [27] 

Russia and England now threatened to render this issue 
impracticable ; while at a time of possible war, when duty 
might be calling him to quite another field in the west, he 
felt especially unwilling to risk seclusion in some Asiatic 
cul de scu. He was forced to the conclusion that his steps 
must be directed homeward ; but this homeward route 
might still be one which no European had yet achieved. 
So he started from Ch*^ng-Tu for England vid Eastern Tibet 
and the Irawadi. 

Ta-Chien-Lu, Gill's first place of halt after leaving Ch'^ng- 
Tu, is the Chinese Gate of Tibet on the Ssii-Ch'uan frontier. 
Politically speaking, it is more correctly the gate between 
what we should call, in Anglo-Indian phrase, the Chinese 
* regulation province * of Ssii-Ch*uan and the Chinese * non- 
regulation province ' of the Tibetan Marches. It was also 
the residence of the late Bishop Chauveau, of the French 
Missions, an old man whose noble presence and benign 
character seem to have deeply impressed every traveller 
who came in contact with him.^ Captain Gill has told the 
story of the Chinese etymology of Ta-Chien-Lu (* the Arrow 
Forge*), but it is a Chinese fancy. The name is really 
Tibetan — Tartsendo — 'confluence of the Tar and Tsen,* as 
Mr. Baber states, in that adrhirable and delightful narrative, 
published in the spring of 1882 by the Royal Geographical 
Society, which the periodical Press has allowed to pass 
almost absolutely unnoticed — taking it, I suppose, for a Blue- 
book, because it is blue ! 

From Ta-Chien-Lu (8,340 ft.) Gill mounted at once to the 

* See the River of Golden Sand^ original edition, vol. ii. pp. 111,112, 
and the present volume, p. 185. Mr. Cooper says: *I perceived a 
venerable old man, dressed in Chinese costume, with a long snow-white 
beard. I shall never forget him as long as I live. He was sixty years 
of age, forty of which he had spent in China as a missionary— his long 
illness made him look older ; his countenance was very beautiful in its 
benignity ; his eye, undimmed by age and suffering, lighted on me with 
a kindly expression, and he bade me welcome in English, which 
he had learned from his mother, an English lady, with a tremulous but 
musical voice.* And again : * The kindness of the people of Ta-tsian- 
loo had made a deep impression on me, and in taking leave of the 
kind old bishop, who with tears in his eyes invoked a blessing upon 
me, my emotion checked all utterance.* — Travels^ pp. 181, 222, 



[28] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

summit level of the great Tibetan tableland, on which, with 
the exception of one or two dips into the gorges of great 
rivers, he might have continued his way, should lamas and 
such-like have withdrawn opposition, without ever descend- 
ing below I i,ooo ft., until he hailed the Russian outposts on 
the northern skirts of Pamir, i,8oo miles away. He continued 
his journey by Lit'ang (13,280 ft.) to Bat'ang (8,546 ft.) in a 
tributary valley of the great Kin-sha, and then crossing that 
river, the real parent stream of the Yang-Tzti according to our 
notions, he turned south, travelling parallel to the river, and 
frequently along its banks, for twenty-four marches, on his 
way to Ta-Li-Fu. At this city, the western capital of Yun* 
nan, and the Carajan of Marco Polo, he may be said to have 
emerged from terra incognita^ and there the most laborious 
part of his daily task ceased ; for the route thence to the 
Irawadi had been already surveyed by Mr. Baber when 
accompanying the Grosvenor' mission to inquire into the 
murder of Margary. 

The region north of Ta-Li-Fu traversed by Gill and Mesny 
presents a singular congeries of tribes. Two of the most 
prominent, the Miisiis and the Lfsiis, are not without claims 
to civilisation, and their women wear picturesque and grace- 
ful costumes bearing a strong analogy to those old fashions 
of Swiss or Pyrenean valleys, popular types for fancy balls. 

The Milsiis, who call themselves Ndshi^ are said formerly 
to have possessed a kingdom, the capital of which was Li- 
Kiang-Fu, which the Tibetans, and the hill-people generally, 
call Sadam. Their king bore the Chinese style of Mu-tien- 
wang, and M. Desgodins, from whose authority these facts 
are derived, says that frequently during his journeys on the 
banks of the Lan-Tsang and the Lu-Kiang he has come upon 
the ruins of MiisU forts and dwellings, *as far north as 
Yerkalo and further,' therefore as far north as Kiangka 
(about lat. 30°), or nearly so. 

Gill met with some Miisiis at or near Kudeu on the 
Kin-sha, and he was much struck by the European aspect of 
a lama (or quasi-lama) who visited him, * more like a French- 
man than a Tibetan.' This recalled to him what Mr. Baber 
says of. two women, called * of Kutung,' whom he met near 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [29] 

Tali. These Kutung people were also encountered on their 
travels further south, in the later journey of Mr. A. R. 
Colquhoun. 

The Lisiis, or Lissaus, again, are described by Dr. 
Anderson as * a small hill-people, with fair, round, flat faces, 
high cheek-bones, and some little obliquity of the eye. The 
men adopt the Shan dress, and the women, like those of the 
Miisiis, a picturesque costume of their own. In the upper 
parts of the great valleys, the Lisiis seem intermixed with the 
MUsds, but they have a wide and sparse distribution further 
to the west, and further to the south. 

The onward track from Tali was no longer new. The 
Irawadi was reached and descended, and Captain Gill, after 
a short stay in Calcutta, reached England again, after twenty 
months of travel. 

His journal was eventually (1880) pubhshed by Mr, 
Murray in two volumes, under the title of * The River of 
Golden Sand ' (the real translation of * Kin-Sha-Kiang '), and 
it had with the public a fair, though hardly a brilliant suc- 
cess, being certainly too bulky, though free from anything 
like padding. 

The present volume is an endeavour to do more justice 
to the essential merits of the book, by presenting it in a 
shorter form. It was thought that no one was more 
capable of accomplishing the abridgment judiciously than 
GilFs attached friend and fellow-traveller, Mr. Baber ; and 
happily he has been able to accept the task to which he was 
invited. 

Before the book appeared the merits of Gill's enterprise 
were recognised by one of the two gold medals of the Royal 
Geographical Society (May 26, 1879). 

The award declared this to be assigned on account 

Of the admirable geographical work performed during two 
long journeys of exploration, voluntarily undertaken along the 
northern frontier of Persia in 1873, and over previously un- 
travelled ground in Western China and Tibet in 1877, and 
especially for the careful series of hypsometrical observations 
and the traverse-survey made during the latter journey, by 
which we have for the first time the means of constructing with 



[3o] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

considerable accuracy profile sections of those elevated and 
little-known regions. Also for the elaborate Memoir contributed 
to the Journal of the Society on the subject of his expedition, 
and for the maps of his route in 42 sheets, on a scale of two 
miles to the inch. 

The Paris Geographical Society also in the following 
year bestowed one of their gold medals on him. It is right 
to remind readers that the bright personal narrative in his 
book, as has been indicated by the award just quoted, does 
not represent Captain GilFs scientific results. Any one who 
desires to appreciate the real character of his labours must 
look at the memoir just referred to (* Journal of the Royal 
Geographical Society,' vol. xlviii. pp. 57, seqq,). From his 
first departure to the north from Ch*eng-Tu, till his arrival at 
Ta-Li-Fu, a route survey was constantly kept up, while obser- 
vations for altitude with aneroids and with Casella's hypso- 
metric thermometer were taken daily at frequent intervals. 
The itinerary appended to the report in the memoir contains 
a mass of minute detail, filling between Ch'^ng-Tu and 
Momien (near the Burmese frontier) 46 pages of very close 
print. 

Here it may be well to repeat part of a passage quoted 
by the present writer, in the original issue of his introductory 
essay to *The River of Golden Sand,* from a letter of Baron 
von Richthofen, which carries great weight : — 

Captain GilFs results have been of the highest interest to 
me, particularly those of his journey north of Ch*^ng-Tu, and ol 
his route between Ta-tsien-lu and AtentzS. He is an acute 
observer of men and nature, and stands very high indeed by the 
accuracy and persistency with which he has carried through his 
surveying work. . . . Many a famous traveller might learn in 
this respect from Captain Gill. The determination of so many 
altitudes is, too, a very important part of his work. ... I regret 
however that he did not put down on the map all that he was able 
to see. ... I presume that Captain Gill wished, .... by the 
tendency to the utmost possible exactness, to abstain from laying 
down on his map whatever was lying at some distance from the 
road. I think it would be well if he could be induced to supply 
this want. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [31] 

The regret expressed in these last words has seemed to 
me well founded, as well as the praise in those that precede 
them. But Mr. Baber alleges that it is hardly ever possible 
to get a view of the run of the mountain ranges. 

Not long after his return from China, and whilst the 
negotiations at Santo Stefano were going on, Captain Gill 
went off with a friend, rather suddenly, to the Danube, with 
the view of visiting the scenes of recent war in the provinces 
about to be detached from Turkey. But the Russian 
officials were too much for Gill and his companion, who 
did not succeed in getting beyond Giurgevo. They took 
their revenge by making fun of the Muscovites in ' Vanity 
Fair.' * This escapade dwells in my recollection from the 
circumstance that an invitation which had been sent to his 
rooms in Westminster was answered by a telegram from 
Bucharest. 

In the spring of 1878 Captain Gill was sent to Constan- 
tinople on duty, in association with Major Clarke, R.A., as 
assistant in the commission on the settlement of the new 
Asiatic boundary between Turkey and Russia, consequent 
on the Treaty of Berlin. Owing to differences of 'opinion 
between the English and Russian members as to a portion 
of the line to be followed, the commission did not that year 
leave Constantinople ; and Gill, after kicking his heels 
between Constantinople and Therapia for many months, 
came home. In the following year a fresh commission was 
appointed of which Sir E. Hamley was the head, and the 
work was accomplished. 

I extract a passage or two from his journal during the 
stay on the Bosphorus : — 

April 12. — As he (B ) remarks, this is a wonderful 

country. He has no money and no transports ; there are 
absolutely no means for doing anything, and yet, he says, the 

things will get done somehow, as they always do. H says 

the same thing ; sometimes they come to him, and tell him that 
there is no rice for the men, none to be had anywhere, none to 

• * Arrested by the Russians ' — in the numbers of that paper for 
June I, 8, and 15, 1878. 

b 



[32] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

be bought, no money to pay for any, and the prospect of the 
whole fleet starving is opened up, but just at the last moment a 
week's supply turns up from somewhere, no one knows where, 
and no one knows how. The astounding way in which this 
country lives from hand to mouth is almost beyond belief. 

April 14. — Scobeleff says that no sane being in Russia 
imagines for a moment that the Russian policy is not India, and 

he said to B : * We shall get there — we shall creep on and 

on, for there will always be plenty of fools in England who will 
believe that we are not doing so ; and then some day when you 
English are unprepared we shall strike the blow. Why of course 
we all want India ! . . . We can't touch you anywhere, thanks 
to your silver streak. But by advancing towards India we 
obliterate that silver streak, and at last when we are near 
enough you will become vulnerable.' 

Again, in the summer of 1880, when the news of the 
defeat of Maiwand reached England, Captain Gill obtained 
some months' leave and hurried to the scene of expected 
action in retrieval of that disaster. But Roberts had made 
yet better haste, and Gill did not reach Quetta till Candahar 
had been relieved and Ayiib beaten. Eager for some active 
employment, he was allowed to join Sir Charles Macgregor 
in his well-conducted but almost bloodless expedition against 
the Maris, with the duty of a survey-officer. I shall make a few 
extracts from his diaries again.® 

August 20 (in the train on his way to Brindisi).— The lamps 
are lit, beds made up and everyone turned in but me. I sat 
long looking at the moon rising over the calm blue sea ; then, 
as to my mind all earthly sounds were hushed — hushed the 
rattle of the train, the hum of human voices, the murmur of the 
waves — in the spirit I seemed to look with the moon and stars at 
my own land with all that it contained — all the strifes, passions, 
loves, struggles, jealousies, hates — and, looked at from that 
distance, from the serene depths of the heavens, where all is 
order, all is regularity, how petty, mean, and miserable seemed 
the aims of all earthly creatures. 

September 12 (on the railway in Sind crossing the Desert to 
Sibi). — I awoke in the Desert. As far as eye can range, nothing 

• The italicising of a few characteristic passages in the journals is 
editorial. 



""" CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [33] 

but an absolute plain of sand as flat as a billiard table, with not 
a blade of grass. The Desert of Persia and the Desert in 
Egypt are nothing to this of Sinde, and the railway was laid 
across it at the rate of two miles a day. Water-trains for the 
thousands of labourers had to be sent up, I think, twice a day, 
and they only broke down once. The labourers were then 
without water for sixteen hours, which must have been hours of 
actual torment. For a stretch of 80 miles, there is not one drop 
of water in the blazing sun of almost the hottest place in the 
world. Arrived at Sibi. Trains are continually coming in, 
hundreds of coolies always shouting, piles upon piles of bales of 
commissariat stores lying about ; everything looks like overwork 
in the blazing sun. 

September 15 (after passing up the Bolan). — There is some- 
thing in mountain air quite diflferent to anything else, it seems 
so elastic and invigorating, it has such a distinct individuality 
that you recognise it at once ; it is like the Chinaman — exactly 
the same wherever you meet it ; and as you get to a height of 
about 6,000 feet, you suddenly recollect the feelings you have 
experienced before, and in a moment what pictures memory 
conjures up ! The Alps, the Caucasus, Persia, China, and Tibet, 
where the same feeling has been experienced, — you find it at 
about 6,000 feet above the sea, but not much lower, — and once 
having felt the exhilaration, you never forget it and always long 
for it. 

September 17 (in the Desert called Dasht-i-Bedaulat). — We 
got on cheerily enough, meeting every here and there a string 
of camels. Now :that Ayub Khan has been so thoroughly 
beaten the people are very civil and make profound salaams, 
with every expression of friendship, but would cut one's throat 
with the greatest pleasure all the same ; that is prestige amongst 
Asiatics ! People at home sometimes sneer at prestige, but if 
they had marched over this road a month ago and again now, 
they would go home wiser and give up sneering at prestige. 

September 25. — They say that the defeat of Khushk-i-Nakhud 
(Maiwand) was all but a victory. Ayub Khan wrote a letter to 

the Khan of Kelat describing it. D saw this letter, and it 

said it was the most desperate battle ever fought in Afghanistan ; 
the letter was far from being boastful. There is no doubt that 

if had not kept the cavalry under fire for hours doing 

nothing, and thus demoralised them, they would have been able 
to charge, and so counteract the attack of the Ghazis on our 
left flank. 

b2 



[34] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

September 26.— It seems as if in some terrible convulsion 
of nature one end of the valley had suddenly sunk and broken 
the mountain ridges on each side, as you would snap a piece 
of wood, thus fonning what are called rifts ; these are simply 
cracks, going from the top to the bottom of the mountain, 
quite narrow and with huge perpendicular walls. This rift is 
not 10 yards wide, and the cliffs rise perpendicularly on either 
side some 1,500 feet. 

He gives a most painful picture of the sudden aban- 
donment of the railway line on the hills between Sibi and 
Quetta, which had been ordered on the arrival of the news 
of Maiwand ; — 

October 6 (at Kotali). — There is about a mile of railway laid 
here, and a locomotive stands on it which the Maris tried to 
destroy. They have, however, burnt all the woodwork of it, 
and the few carriages that were there. The scene of desolation 
is really shameful. Here is a photograph book, there a dozen 
or so of novels, the remains of a printing press, the telescope of 
a theodolite, half a box of cigars (spoilt) ; a packet of letters 

was picked up by St. V ; Col. L 's chest of drawers, or 

rather the remains of it, lie on the ground ; broken wheelbar- 
rows, chairs, tables, washhand-stands, strew the ground. The 
General looted a pewter pot. And the amount of stationery and 
printed forms everywhere is astonishing; they fairly litter the 
road for miles. 

The last feature is strikingly characteristic of Anglo- 
India ! 

October 7. — We continue our march down the river, the 
scene of wreck and ruin being more apparent than ever ; 
broken carts and wheelbarrows ; broken -open cartridge-boxes 
and cash-boxes, old portmanteaus, quantities of books — novels, 
books of poetry, the Polite Letter Writer (! !), mathematical 
tables, engineers' books — and then the scene of the fight with 
a couple of grinning skulls to remind one of the disgraceful 
disaster. ... It has been a mistake, I think, bringing the 
Bengal Sepoys down this way, for they open their eyes in 
astonishment, and say that they could not have believed that 
such a disaster could have occurred to the Government. I 

suppose that could never have received or even asked for 

the sanction of the Government. It seems impossible to believe 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [35] 

that the Government would thus have madly sacrificed such a 
vast amount of valuable property for nothing. 

October 12. — I always remember what I do on October 12 
[a family aniversary]. Once I was at Kalat-i-Nadiri, in Persia 
(vide * Clouds in the East '), once I was at Shan-hai-Kuan ; the 
next year I remember drinking Robert's health when I was 
with Mesny, though exactly where I do not knowj Now I 
shall be at the camp two miles south of Kalat-i-Kila. 

I now discovered that M'C 's syce had bolted (his 

servant had disappeared some days before with 40 rupees) — , 

and that all of C *s and St. V 's mules had vanished. 

Naturally I felt for them ; — as my box had to be carried by 
their mules ! If I had not had that box, no doubt the misfortunes 
of my good friends would have given me great satisfaction. 
MacGregor, however, appeared like the good fairy, and sup- 
plied some animals, but these did not start till about 7. I 
found a table lying about ; — everyone had gone, and all their 
property. It was a table I did not recognise, and was smaller 
than most. This was a sore temptation. Good people say 
you should resist temptation. I did not even try. I am a bold 
bad man ! I bid the muleteer put the table on the top of my 
box. It is a beautiful table; it does not weigh a couple of 
pounds. I stole that table ; I am a thief and I feel no remorse 
whatever. I took the table to camp : I asked several people if 
it was theirs (carefully selecting those who would I knew reply 
in the negative). Then I felt my bosom swell with pride at the 
excess of my honesty ! Anyhow, I've got the table and intend 
to stick to it. If anyone claims it I shall swear he's a liar. I 
shall ask him if he wants to impugn my honour ; I shall look 
fierce and draw my sword ! 

October 16 (Camp at Kwat). — The Goorkhas are wonder- 
ful little fellows on the mountain side ; they are just like goats, 
and hop and skip about where I am obliged to go mincingly 
holding on by hands and feet ; they are certainly the best 
soldiers we have in India, and perhaps out of it. 

October 21 (Camp, Biland Well). — The Bombay troops 
deserve everything that has been said about them ; their 
arrangements are miserable, their commissariat and transport 
inefficient, their sepoys weak, sickly and useless ; they never 
kept together, never lent a hand to anyone else, but directly a 

* At Yung-Chang-Fu (Vochan of Marco Polo) on the Chino-Burman 
frontier (see River of Golden Sand, orig. ed. ii. 337). 



[36] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

load came off one of their animals, they laid themselves down to 
sleep and expected some one else to do their work. 

October 22. — The march we made yesterday was really a 
very remarkable one, and in all probability the most difficult 
accomplished during the whole Afghan war ; the want of water 
was the most terrible thing, and it was lucky it was not hot ; if 
it had been and we had been opposed, I really don't believe the 
march would have been possible. As it was we lost about 60 
animals and the Bombay troops lost about 100. 

October 2^. — The Goorkhas, B said, worked like bricks, 

always cheerful ; they crack their jokes under the most dismal 
circumstances, have no sense of fear, and can run up hills and 
mountains like goats. 

October 30 (after reaching Karam Khan). — I can't make out 
yet whether these people are friends or foes. Some are Pathans — 
these are friends ; some are Maris — these are enemies. Affairs 
are complicated because the Maris have driven out the Pathans, 
taken their fields, and then let the Pathans come back as tenants. 

Query, then, are the crops the crops of the Mari robber 
proprietors, or of the Pathan tenants (not at will, but much 
against their will)? The difference between this place and 
Ireland is, that in Ireland tenants kill their landlords, here the 
landlords kill the tenants. 

November 2 (near Mamand). — The General had intended 
(if a peaceful arrangement had not been attained) to have sent 
half his force to Kahan, to have taken the other half to Safid 
Tok ; he had made arrangements for both the forces from 
Thull and from Kwat Mandai to have converged at the same 
time, and if it had been fighting it would simply have been 
slaughter. One cannot help feeling glad that this has been 
avoided^ even though we lose the medal we might have got if 
the Maris had been pitched into, 

November 4 (at Khanki). — I am always much amused at 
the discussion of heights and distances. Says someone to me 
(I am, I believe, the only man in the force with a barometer), 
* Well, Gill, what did we come down to-day?' I observe 530 
feet. * Oh,' says my interlocutor, * we came down double that.' 
I always now expect this answer, so say nothing ; he generally 
finishes by writing down the height I gave him. 

November 15 (between Fatehpur and Rajanpur). — What a 
treat to see an avenue of acacias and babul trees, not scrubby 
bushes ! How our eyes revelled in the cultivated fields and 
gardens ! This is peace j these are the eflfects of a few years of 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [37] 

wise rule. This place was a desert a few years ago, now there 
is prosperity and safety for everyone. 

November 17. — Got up at 6 and started about 7. The air 
^iras fresh but very damp, owing to the proximity of the mighty 
stream of Indus. . . . We determined to ride straight in and 
breakfast at the Railway Station, Kahnpur. I never enjoyed a 
ride more. Of course it was over the perfectly flat plain, bu 
after the dreary deserts of Baluchistan, the plain of Bhawalpur 
looked a very garden, though people from India look on it 
more or less as a howling wilderness. There were nice villages 
ensconced in trees, large ber trees, babuls, and date-palms ; 
plains of rich green grass ; sugar-cane khets, and rice fields 
spoke of peace and a peaceful quiet rule. It was indeed re- 
freshing, and quite raised our spirits to see the fine large 
villages, the ryots at work with their ploughs, the many travellers 
on the roads, all of whom salaam, or give a pleasant answer to 
the usual inquiry of * How far off.?' The very droning of the 
Persian wheels^ monotonous noise though it be, was pleasant 
enough, for it spoke 0/ irrigation and fruitful fields, industry 
and prosperity. 

Of Gill's employment on the Mari Expedition, its leader, 
Sir Charles Macgregor, writes to me thus : — 

Gill came out to Quetta, just as my brigade was going off, 
and I was very glad to take him with me. He undertook and 
carried out in the most conscientious manner a survey of the 
country we went over, and though this was of itself a sufficiently 
laborious task for any man, he was always ready to lend a hand 
where he could be useful ; he did many times prove of great 
assistance to me, and in my despatch I mentioned being 
specially indebted to him. After we got back, without any rest 
he started off for Merv, by way of Bandar Abbass. 

He was a great favourite with the whole force, and I am 
sure I have met few men of whom I have had such a high 
opinion. As a subordinate I know how reliable he was, and I 
always felt that if his day ever came he would not shine less as 
a commander. 

I cannot conclude these few remarks better than by tran- 
scribing what Col. Brackenbury writes to me of him : * There 
are few men like him ; few who have ever combined such a 
gallant spirit with such unassuming modesty ; ' every word of 
which I can heartily endorse. 



38] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

In GilFs personal journal for his family, he notes under 
November 3 : — 

As for my march, is it not written in the book of Chronicles 
of my official Diary, where an accurate description of every 
yard is written ? 

Gill had leave still available when he reached the coast, 
and determined to make use of it in a bold attempt to reach 
Merv. He embarked at Kardchi on December 4, for Bandar 
Abbas, and travelled by Sirjan, Kirmdn, Yezd, and Teheran 
to Meshhed. His original intention had been to go direct 
from Kermdn to Meshhed, but this was impracticable on 
account of the snow in the high tracts to be passed. At 
Meshhed he found the expedition to Merv impossible, with- 
out permission from home and extension of leave. He 
would have been certain to overstay his leave, and had there- 
fore to return (riding chappd) to Teheran, to meet the reply, 
which was, as he had feared, a refusal. The complaints of 
M. de Giers about *the English officers who haunted the 
frontier ' were recent. Gill returned from Teheran, crossing 
the Caspian from Enzeli to Baku, and thence by Tiflis and 
across the Caucasus, and so home by Moscow and Berlin. 
At Tiflis, where he stopped a few days, he made a variety of 
acquaintances, and met many whom he had known at Con- 
stantinople. By somewhat desperate efforts he reached 
Moscow on March 28, and London on April i, 1881, the 
day his leave expired. His sister Avrites : * William tele- 
graphed to us at home to dine with him on his arrival that 
evening, tired though he must have been.' Tired enough 
surely 1 He had been just nine days traveUing from Tiflis to 
his chambers in Edinburgh Mansions, Victoria Street. We 
give a few extracts from the journal of this Persian episode : — 

December 13 (at mouth of Pass above Bandar Abbas). — The 
moon was still well up and the stars shone brightly, so that it 
was easy to see to pack up. We turned up a narrow and quite 
dry gorge ; in this light it had a most weird aspect ; the light 
was no doubt deceptive, but it looked as if the rocks were going 
to precipitate themselves into the valley. The precipices 
seemed to rise straight up and overhang the road, the lights 



CAPTASx Tm^'Ajs \=z\v j:ii. 5s:: 



aacows *e.e jure sariiz-^. izc Lie ece^t *i5 !ie!^>r?r<Ni 
gorge nrsced snd -irietf jke aocnc hocrlc <sa}K« Src>fc<i« ^r«dt 



Dazimserzi ai 5zic:ibaii. :c the viy ^,^ Kvrrjui . — I jun 
srrm^ I sioac I-Kk fenfire: :: — izc I £izo- -.v wr*.::trs:» v:i:>' 



jointed and discKme-nec- refer:? zi>' i:s=*.JL fringe ot" :r»!vl 

Tlbxigiii my plazs weZ over anc ie:errrL:ned :o jlSukivh*. the 
entcrpnae of getdn^ :o Mer*- . Trhich now j^pwors hvH>eKr>>. 
The direct road ro Meshhec was said :o be bivvked » ith >i^v^« • 
and ihev wiH a^x undertake :he ^oumev to K:n:uin uiKter nvt* 
days. I am also met with the pleasing intelligenvif ihat the 
road beyond Kirmin is mpassable e\-en tor the jxv>: messe:>^ex^ 
— and what that means in these a>untnes where jv>$t me:!i*e;\^ex^ 
are supposed to go through an\-thing, con be in\agine\l. 

I could not leave Kirmin before lanuarv i« and I shouKi 
have 50 daj-s only at the outside to do at least i,oco miJes* and 
in all probability less time to do much more. 1 am therefore 
determined to go to Kirmin without bagg;ige anin\als« 3:et my 
letters, &c, and come back here as quickly as jnvssible, auvl so 
on to Shiraz, whence I shall ride post to Teheran and so 
home. 

December 23. — Munshi, who had never seen snow, rentarked 
that it was the funniest sort of rain he had ever seen in his hfe. 

December 25 (Cara\*anserai at Akhar-abad, between ^U^shis 
and Kirmdn). — Looking back there was a splendid panorama 
of snowy mountains, nearly all round, Kuh-Kahi-Asker risinj^ 
grandly above them all ; but somehow 1 find that snow -moun- 
tains, much as I love to feast my eyes on the sight, when one 
knows the snow is not perpetual, seem to impress one very 
differently to those grand giants whose heads never know the 
loss of their glorious crowns. However, it was a splendid sight, 
and worth coming a long way to see. 

My Christmas dinner was excellent, but without pUun 
pudding. 

My heart was lightened by the thought that to-day my letter 
would be a welcome Christmas gift; for J calculate that my 
first from Karachi will be received to-day. 

His sister notes here : — 

He never failed to send letters to reach home as nearly a« pos- 
sible on any special days or seasons besides the regular letters. 



[4o] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

December 31 (on way from Kirmdn to Yezd). — Heavy clouds 
everywhere, a sea of mud before us and the telegraph posts 
stretching away into the dim distance, the only signs of civilisa- 
tion, seeming, too, a link between me and home, inviting me to 
abandon these desolate places and asking me what was the 
good of giving up everything that makes life worth living ; and 
as the prospects of success in the enterprise I have undertaken 
seem more and more dim, it requires all the resolution I have 
to continue in the uncomfortable task. 

January 12 (1881). — As we approached Yezd, a number of 
riders, some on exceedingly good horses, and with two led horses, 
gaily caparisoned with bridles covered with gold lace, appeared. 
Here, I thought, is the Shahzada on his way to Kirmdn ; but no, 
these were people whom the Governor of Yezd had sent out to 
meet me and welcome me ; they were officers, some in a high 
position. . I had almost forgotten the custom of sending out led 
horses, and it brought to my mind my previous travels in Persia, 
for in this country, instead of coming out yourself, you send 
your best horses in their best clothing. The two chief of these 
officers were sober, stately gentlemen. Some of the others now 
went through their games. One man stood on his head on the 
saddle, and put both legs straight up in the air. Many of them 
dashed backwards and forwards, and round and round, firing off 
their rifles. Another dashed off at full gallop, threw his rifle in the 
air and caught it again, then, dropping the reins on the animal's, 
neck, fired at an imaginary foe. As we neared the city others 
came to meet me, and when inside a number of farashes 
(domestic servants) of the Governor joined the procession, now 
a formidable array. We descended at the door of a magnificent 
house that had been prepared for us, with an unlimited number 
of servants and guard ; then the Governor sent to inquire after 
my health, which he did about every ten minutes ; in the 
evening he came himself, and his talk was chiefly of sport, of 
which he seems very fond. He treats me magnificently, feeds 
my horses, finds all materials for my food, and sends the Munshi 
a very fine dinner. I really don't like taking all this, but of 
course there will be presents to make when I go away, &c. 

The whole business is very amusing, that, coming into Persia 
utterly unknown, without a letter, or credentials, or passport of 
any form or kind, except my own statement that I am an 
English officer, I should receive such hospitality. The Governor 
complained that he had done nothing for me, and apologised for 
not doing more. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [41] 

I always feel suspicious when such protestations, almost 
servile from our point of view, are made. 

January 17. — Persia is like a filled-up basin, there is 
no drainage to the sea, and in the course of many ages the 
cUbris and sand washed down from the mountains have filled 
up this basin, for nothing can be carried away except by dust 
storms — thus these everlasting plains have been formed ; they 
of course get higher and higher, and the mountains get lower. 
The gaps between these get filled up.® 

January 19. — Somewhere in the sandy waste we crossed 
to-day, we passed the boundary of Isfahan and entered the 
province of Khorasan, the garden of Persia ; but what a garden 
and what a hopeless country ! — nothing but dreary wastes of salt 
sand and salt water, with a few salt streams. 

While at Yezd talking with the Governor, a man who was 
sitting by said he had heard of a prophet having arisen in 
America, and wanted to know something about it. I told him 
of the Mormons and Salt Lake City, of Brigham Young and his 
100 wives, I told him the American Government did not 
approve of all this, but up to naw had been unable to put it 
down ; to which he replied, he hoped that God would help that 
Government in its attempts. 

January 20. — As usual, there is a marked contrast between 
this country and China. China is a country that is drained to 
the sea ; there everything tends to get steeper and steeper, while 
here everything gets shallower and less steep. The time is of 
course the time of geological ages, but the effects of the work 
of time plainly show what is still going on. In China you 
travel through deep ravines, and the mountain passes are 
crossed by desperately steep ascents. Here, to cross a *godar,' 
as they style them, you ascend a gentle and easy slope, and 
scarcely know when you are at the top. There the summits are 
like the edge of a knife. 

January 26 (at Sang-gird). — We went up the Sir Valley, 
which in spring or autumn must be delightful — extensive gardens 
of vines, figs, pomegranates, peaches, apricots, walnuts, and 
cherries. A stream of real fresh water ripples over a pebbly 

" During his travels in China, and since, he had often discussed 
Richthofen*s speculations on steppe-formation. I find in a letter of 
his, dated May 12 (1881) : *I often used to think of Richthofen's 
remarks about Central Asia being ** filled up,'* when travelling through 
Persia. The latter is regularly a ** filled-up country" — all filled up, 
except the tops of the mountains, which stick up out of the sand like 
rocky islands out of a sea;' 



[42] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

bed, overhung by plane and walnut trees. At other times we 
passed rows of mulberry trees. It certainly was a treat to ride 
through this, after the dreary and desolate wastes to which we 
have been accustomed ; and I could well appreciate Terrier's 
ecstasy at Dehrud, which (when we were there eight years ago) 
we were much disappointed with, because we had been travel- 
ling in comparatively fertile places. I saw here the first mag- 
pies to-day that I have seen on this journey. I like the sight 
of magpies, they always seem to me homely friendly birds. 

January 27. — We marched 37^ miles to Ka.fgTr, thus com- 
pleting upwards of 1,000 miles from Bandar Abbas. 

January 29 (M2.shh2.d or Meshhed. After meeting different 
people there he writes) : Now what chance have I in doing in 
a few days what they have failed in doing in months (speaking 
of Napier, O' Donovan, and Stewart) ? I might of course manage 
it if I could stay here some time, but travelling as I am, without 
Government sanction, I cannot possibly overstay my leave, nor 
even run the risk of it. There is only one course for me to 
pursue — that is, to get permission from the Minister. It is the 

only way not tried by S . It is altogether a very forlorn 

hope, for I feel certain that the answer to my telegram will be a 
decided refusals 

January 30. — My people and horses were glad enough to 
have finished this march of upwards of 500 miles, in 15 days, 
for we left Yezd on the 1 5th, and from Yezd to Meshhed is, at my 
computation, just 505 miles ; and my distances compared with 
those of Smith from Kirmdn to Yezd, or with those of McGregor 
from Yezd, and those of Stewart from Yezd, as far as they came 
my road, are all too short ; so that is not bad marching. 

February 8. — S and I rode out to the Mosque of 

Khdja-Rabbi, about four miles out from the city — a pretty place 
with gilt minarets and a garden that would be delightful in 
spring or summer ; the gardener gave us some violets, but I 
have come to the conclusion that from one end of Persia to the 
other there is absolutely nothing worth coming to see, and the 
way in which people in old days used to talk about the glories 
and beauties of Persian cities is simply ridiculous. 

February 18 (from Meshhed to Teheran). — ^Average distance 
(from Meshhed) 68 J miles a day. From loth to i8th we came 
549J miles ; for the first and last days can count as one only — 
making eight days. 

Very easy going for chappa riding. 

March 2 (in Ghilan). — To-day's ride would be lovely any- 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [43] 

where-^through beautiful forests, woods of olives, tumbling 
streams, green park-like bits ; banks with quantities of violets 
and primroses in blossom ; picturesque huts, with high thatched 
roofs ; everything to remind one that we are now in a wet climate. 

March 3. — The climate of Ghilan is rife with a poisonous 
fever. I was offered hospitality in the kindest way by Monsieur 
Schwaabe. 

March 24 (on way from Tiflis to Kazbek). — Our things 
were soon transferred into a sleigh, which easily carried 
Gerome, myself, and our luggage, and we went off with two 
horses tandem. The road was very narrow, between walls of 
snow, sometimes twelve feet high. Under is any depth of snow 
up to twenty or thirty feet. For the great avalanche that fell 
the other day came down from a valley and buried nearly the 
whole of this stage^ and in it twelve men were lost. 

In October of the same year Captain Gill again obtained 
leave. This time the transactions of the French in Tunis 
had drawn his attention to North Africa, and it appeared 
to him that there was great need of detailed knowledge of 
the provinces between Tunis and Egypt. On his way he 
made a short tour in Sicily, climbing Etna to the foot of 
the cone, but hindered by rough weather from completing 
the ascent. At Malta (October 31) he was joined by a 
dragoman whom he had summoned, a Syrian from Beyrut, 
by name Khalil-Atik. This man seems to have won much of 
his master's regard ; rejoining him on the last fatal expedi- 
tion, and perishing with him.^ GilFs first experience of the 
new dragoman's aplomb (to say the least) rather startled him. 

November i. — I gave Khalfl a circular note and told him to 
ask the landlord if he could change it. He brought me back 
25 napoleons. * But,' I said, * I must sign it.' *0h !' replied 
Khalfl, ' I've done that for you.' I made him bring back the 
note and found he had forged my name with the most complete 
sang-froid^ though hardly in a way my bankers would recognise. 

On November 7 he writes at Tripoli : — 

Here I am again in my old style, writing my diary as of old 
in many a Chinese inn. Of all, I think the one that is brought 

• This faithful servant was the son of Nimja Atik, a widow in the 
employment of the British School Mission (Mrs. Bowen Thomson's) 
at Beyrut, . 



[44] A BRmF MEMOIR OF 

most forcibly to my recollection is one, a day or two beyond 
Ch'^ng-Tu. It was the hottest night I ever remember, the city 
was fearfully closed in, the heat and sleepiness were awful, the 
bugs were plentiful ; though I sat nearly naked, I think I 
drowned one or two in the perspiration that dropped from me.* 
I remember Mesny*s wonder, not unmixed with admiration, at 
my being able to sit down and write. However, recollections 
crowd upon me, so that if I once begin I shall never leave off. 

His sojourn in Tripoli extended ifrom the first week of 
November, 1 88 1, to the first week in April follo^ving. Three - 
fifths of this time was wasted in waiting for a permission 
from Constantinople to travel, which never came, and, after 
it became necessary to dispense with that, much also in 
waiting for the execution of promises which never were kept. 
But Gill brought to bear the same patience and persistence 
that had carried him through difficulties on the frontier of 
China, Tibet, and Burma ; several interesting journeys were 
accomplished, and a large mass of information collected. 
His first journey was, parallel to the coast, westward to Zuara 
and Farwa (105 m. from Tripoli) ; a second to Nalut in the 
hill country, W.S.W. of Tripoli, and thence eastward along 
the hill country itself to Yifrin, and then N. by E. to Tripoli ; 
lastly from Tripoli S. into the hill country by Wddi Mijinin, 
then east to Homs upon the coast, and back along the coast 
by Lebda to the capital. He had desired to travel by land 
from Tripoli to Benghazi, and it was in the hope of obtaining 
an opportunity for this that he waited long in vain. At last, 
when this hope failed, he proceeded to Benghazi by steamer, 
leaving Tripoli April 3. 

I extract a few passages from his journals during his 
sojourn in Tripoli : — 

November 26. — Of course a load fell off one of the camels 
immediately after starting, but that I had naturally looked 
forward to. Khalfl says he never knew what patience meant 
before he came here, but he is rapidly learning it now. All 
delays come to me now as a matter of course, I take them like 
the rain or the sun, 

December 6. — The 'Times' correspondent has been here, 

* Apparently at Hsin-Chin-Hsien, July 11, 1877. • 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [45] 

and spent a week in one of my rooms ; he is coming back 
again next month. I wish / had come out as a special corre- 
spondent — I could easily have managed it — and then I should 
have been able to go where I liked ; for they would never dare 
to incur the displeasure of the great English newspapers. 

December 20. — // is strange — at least it seems so to me — that 
people whose lives are little better than miserable should set 
such value on them^ while people who have everything they 
want in this world care nothing at all about their lives. 

The journal abounds in characteristics of Turkish ways 
and modes of government. 

Under February 4 we find more than one such : — 

There is no telegraph from this to Malta, and telegrams go 
therefore to Malta by steamer, and thence are wired by an 
English company. 

It appears that the Ferik (General) here has been sending 
great numbers of telegrams to Constantinople, but as there is a 
difficulty about prepayment (for the telegraph company have 
no agent here) the company, taking into consideration his high 
position and the fact that his messages were for his Govern- 
ment, allowed the Ferik to run up a bill. But having run it up 
he declined to pay it, and as he is to be deposed immediately, 
he is quite indifferent about the results. The consequence is, 
that the company now refuse to send any telegrams for the 
military authorities here, who are thus cut off from all com- 
munication with Constantinople. 

.... Of one thing I am quite sure from conversation with 
Khalfl, and that is, that at no very distant day there will be a 
terrible reckoning for the Turks in Syria, when the Christians 
in that country, assisted by some outside power (or without 
such assistance, should the Turks be driven in a war with 
another Power to withdraw all their troops from Syria;, shall 
unlock the floodgates of bitter hatred which have been shut for 
so many years, and let loose the torrent of wild revenge which, 
having been held back for so long, has been constantly growing 
and increasing in volume, till now it is ready to sweep in a vast 
flood over the whole country — revenge for years of insult and 
oppression — revenge for the death of fathers, mothers, sisters, 
and brothers — revenge for the deprivation of those liberties 
which make life worth living— and more than all, revenge for 
religious persecution. 



[46] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

Under March i8 Gill relates the story of John Brown, 
and how he was hanged by Governor Wise, of Virginia, as 
it was told him by Colonel Robeson, the American Consul- 
General at Tripoli. Gill was a boy, I fancy, of thirteen or 
fourteen when the thing happened, and was evidently not 
familiar with the history, which older men remember well. 
But Colonel Robeson's story had a continuation worth ex- 
tracting : — 

All this occurred before the war, and Governor Wise was at 
that time a very wealthy, powerful, and opulent person. After 
the war he was nearly penniless, and in one of the border states 
it so happened that Colonel Robeson was in the Quarter- 
Master-General's office, when a shabby mean-looking person 
came in and asked for assistance. * Who are you ? ' said the 
Quarter- Master-General. * I was Governor Wise,' said the 
stranger ; * I am absolutely penniless now, and have come to 
ask you for assistance to help me back to Virginia.' The 
Quarter- Master-General paused. It was just time for guard- 
mounting, and during the pause the band marched by the 
window, playing * John Brown ! ' It was a mere chance, but a 
very remarkable one. The Quarter-Master-General gave the 
late Governor all he could, and sent him on his way. 

March 24. — Took a ride in the afternoon by myself. 

Out at the gate by the seashore, where the rising westerly 
wind sends little wavelets even here into the sheltered harbour 
to break on the sandy shore skirting the grim old battlemented 
wall, we pass with difficulty through a busy crowd. Here are 
dozens of hucksters with little tables spread selling bread, white, 
brown, and black. An Arab, wrapt up in a barakan so that he 
can only see right in front of him, like a horse with blinkers, 
drives a donkey among my horse's legs. But I know the spot 
and go cautiously. My horse, fresh with big feeds of barley 
and little work, puts his ears back and prepares to dance. But 
I know him too by this time, and I check him just in time to 
prevent him upsetting half-a-dozen tables. Successfully we 
thread the intricacies of the crowd, and here, in a wide sandy 
road between low mud walls that enclose barley-fields, now green 
and fresh, are hucksters sitting in a row with bundles of lucerne 
grass and carrots, their donkeys, camels, and horses tethered 
hard by out of the way, or lying provokingly in the way in the 
middle of the road. Masaud out of pure joyousness of heart 
tries to snatch a carrot or a mouthful of corn, arid when hin- 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [47] 

dered looks round reproachfully at me. So we pass the throng 
on to the quiet road, where a quarter of a mile onward a white 
mosque with a picturesque minaret stands at the beginning of 
the palms. Through these we ride for a couple of miles, the 
bare rough stems of the trees rising from fields of green barley, 
glowing red with poppies ; the fig trees and the pomegranates 
just putting forth their leaves, exulting in the early spring, which 
here indeed is radiant ; almond trees covered with blossoms 
rest lovingly against the more sombre olives ; oranges and 
lemons laden with their golden fruit would tempt the passer-by 
to pluck one here and there were they not so common, and the 

air is laden with the scent of the orange flowers, &c 

And as the sun sets we again pass through the gates with a 
fervent prayer that this may be the last time, and that the 
steamer may come to-morrow. Then to the stables, where we 
see our horses fed, and sit for half-an-hour with old Taylor, 
while his tongue runs on continually, as we silently smoke a 
cigarette, and so home to the solitary dinner ! 

Benghazi was reached by steamer on April 6. It was 
reached h la Turc, however, from the eastiuard^ the Captain 
having overshot the mark some 50 miles in the night. Gill 
was told after landing that a Turkish steamer expected from 
the west always appeared from the east and vice versa. 

He writes under date April 8, in a letter to a friend : — 

The vessel belongs partly to a company, but I don't exactly 
know the ins and outs. She used to be commanded by an 
Austrian, but recently the government have put Turkish naval 
officers into her, as part of their policy of exciting all Mussul- 
mans against all Christians. That this is their policy now I 
am certain ; I have no doubt that the Egyptian troubles are a 
part of it ; and it is a fact that the officers of the Turkish army 
have been ordered to associate as little as possible with Chris- 
tians. * * * The officers of the ship were fortunately exceed- 
ingly polite and good natured (as Turks always are) and allowed 
the three first-class passengers to use the bridge. One of them 
was a young Italian, who belongs to a pseudo-geographico- 
scientifico-meteorologi co-commercial society. This society has 
a station at Benghazi, and another at Derna; but heaven 
knows what they do, unless you omit all the other o's, and 
substitute * politico.' 



[48] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

One of his objects was to travel from Benghazi through 
the Cyrenaica by land to Egypt. Having failed to obtain 
any Turkish permission to travel, but understanding that 
the Vali would not make any opposition to his going without 
leave, he made a start at night (April 21), having first sent 
most of his things out of the town to a garden-house two 
miles distant. But the last despatch of luggage was inter- 
cepted by an officious Zaptieh ; a party were sent after 
them •; they were turned back, and his camel-men, &c., were 
thrown into prison. 

It was a costly and vexatious failure, and Gill felt it 
much. He writes on April 26 : — 

Alas, alas ! spilt milk, spilt milk, in huge cans full ! It's no 
use crying over it, but it's uncommonly hard to help it. 

.... Though Tripoli is badly governed, this Vilayat is 
infinitely worse. The present Vali was at one time Pasha at 

Tripoli, but D H got him kicked out, after a reign of 

forty days only, for indulging too openly in the traffic of slaves. 
Here he can do this with less trouble, for although the people 
in England may not know it, the slave-trade flourishes exceed- 
ingly. . . . He was once turned out of this place also. He 
went away with a large retinue of slaves in a steamer, touching 
at Crete. The Consul here managed to apprise the Consul at 
Crete of the affair; the latter boarded the ship, but all the 
slaves were found with passports, and declared themselves free 
and willing servants of the Pasha, who, partly by threats, and 
partly by telling them the foreigners would come and make 
them Christians by force, had made them deny their slavery. 
Of course, directly they left Crete, the passports were taken 
away and burnt. 

On May 8, he left Benghazi by steamer for Malta ; and 
thence on the 15 th for Catania, where he caught the steamer 
for Constantinople. I believe his effi)rts to obtain any re- 
dress, or the release of his men arrested at Benghazi, were 
unsuccessful. He started from Constantinople by rail on 
May 29. I give a few more extracts : — 

May 29. — I think there was a little malice mixed up in my 
determination to travel without a teskere^ that is, without leave ; 

for the Ambassador wigged me so severely (in S 's presence) 

for travelling without leave in Tripoli, that I confess I take some 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [49] 

pleasure in doing the same thing here, with the knowledge of 
the Ambassador himself, and by the advice of his private 

secretary (S ). 

. . . This man (X ) got a contract for the railway from 

Constantinople to and onwards through the mountains, 

and he arranged it so as to be paid at so much a kilometre, the 
same price per kilometre in the mountains as in the plains, a 
sort of medium rate having been chosen ; accordingly he set to 
work and made the line in the plain as long as he could, wind- 
ing about instead of going straight, for in the plains where the 
line costs much less per mile than he was paid by his contract, 
the longer he could make it the better for himself. Then as 
soon as he reached the mountains he employed agents who 
went to the Minister of Public Works, and by his (X 's) in- 
structions abused it, pointed out that the line had purposely 
been made longer than necessary, and advised the Minister to 
break the concession. The Minister fell into the trap, and 

wanted to break off the engagement. X pretended to be 

angry and demanded compensation, which was given him by 
allowing him to cut, in perpetuity apparently, as much timber 

as he liked in the Forest of Y , but which in the somewhat 

curious wording of the concession he was to treat en ban p^re 
defamille, . . . Thus have the wretched Turks been spoiled by 
the Christian entrepreneurs. Of course it is their own fault, as 
they will do nothing without bribes, and thus respectable men 
are driven away. 

May 30 (at Philippopolis). — The German (agent of a water 
company) made one very significant remark. He said, * Every- 
thing is safe here, that is why my company comes here. We 
know that if we get our concession our money wilj be paid 
regularly, and that our investment is a safe one ; whereas in 
Turkey everything is different and nothing is secure.* 

He reached London on June 16. On the 21st of the 
following month he was again on the move ; starting on 
what was to be his last expedition. He was directed to 
proceed to Egypt on special service, with rank as Deputy- 
Assistant-Adjutant-General and Deputy-Assistant-Quarter- 
Master-General. I had no opportunity of personally wishing 
him God-speed, being out of town at the moment, but I 
may be forgiven if I transcribe here the words, now so 
greatly valued, in which he told me of the orders : — 

C2 



[5p] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

I Edinburgh Mansions, 20-7. 
Just one line to wish my kindest friend good-bye. I received 
orders last night to start to-morrow for Alexandria. The very 
short peeps I have had of you have been the pleasantest half- 
hours of my short stay at home. 

The circumstances of Captain Gill's deputation to Egypt 
were first publicly stated in a speech delivered by Lord 
Northbrook at the Royal Geographical Society on Novem- 
ber 13, 1882. Gill had been employed, under Lord North- 
brook's instructions, in association with Colonel Bradford, a 
distinguished officer of the Indian service, in collecting inform- 
ation as to the Bedouin tribes adjoining the Canal. Such 
an inquiry soon brought them into communication with Pro- 
fessor E. H. Palmer as the person best able to assist them, 
and before long it led to the despatch of Professor Palmer to 
the desert.^ Lord Northbrook, seeing Gill's character and 
value, proposed to send him also out to join Admiral 
Hoskins at Port Said as an officer of the Intelligence De- 
partment. The charge of cutting the telegraph wire from 
Cairo, which crossed the Desert to El-Arish and Syria, and 
so to Constantinople, by which Arabi (in rebellion against 
the Porte !) obtained information and support from that 
capital, eventually devolved on him. 

More than once indications have been manifested of a 
supposition that Gill's despatch on this last fatal expedition 
had originated somehow on his own motion. There was no 
ground for this idea except the voluntary character of some 
of his former journeys, in which, though travelling at his own 
cost, he procured information of great pubhc value ; and it 
is quite dispelled by the following passages (over which one 
might fancy some presentiment to hover), gathered from the 
torn and stained fragments of diary which were recovered 
from the surface of the Desert many weeks after his death, 
and pieced together by his sister's pious care : — 

Wednesday^ July 19. — * * East, who told me I was to go 
to-morrow to Egypt. Found a memo, from Sir Garnet Wolseley 
to that effect when I got home. Two lines only # # * 

2 Professor Palmer left London June 30 ; left Jafta July 12 ; left 
Gaza for Suez through the Desert about July 14. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [51] 

Ffiday^ 21st. — « # I have this consolation, that whatever 
happens I never asked any one to send me, or to let me go to 
Egypt. When G. Wolseley * ♦ to go, I was quite prepared, 
until Lord [Northbrook] expressly sent for me, and asked me to 
go to Admiral Hoskins. Personally I would rather have been 
with [ * * Wolseley (?)] * but now whatever turns up I shall 
feel that I have simply done what I was told. 

On another torn scrap, on which no date remains, but 
which seems to have been written at this time, we find these 
touching and suggestive words : — 

♦ # chance for which ♦ ♦ come at last, I do I have spent 
my life * * the earth in search of information ^ * by way of 
fitting myself for active \sefvice\ ♦ * but the latter I have 
always missed by ill-luck. 

I volunteered for Abyssinia when a boy * # 

He reached Alexandria on July 27, and next day pro- 
ceeded to Port Said in the * Decoy ' to report himself to 
Admiral Hoskins. Here he became an official guest of 
Captain Dennistoun of the * Tourmaline ' till August 5, when 
he left for Suez, arriving there on the 6th at 4 a.m. 

Before going further I will here cite a few passages from 
the last pages of his journal.^ 

July 27 (Alexandria). — There is not much to say about the 
streets of Alexandria. Some of them are in hideous ruins, 
others fairly intact, but the impression of driving down a street 
which is not ruined is almost more melancholy than driving in 
one that is, because all the houses and shops are shut up, the 
streets are quite deserted, and the place has the appearance of 
a city of the dead ; it almost puts one in mind of Pompeii. 

July 29 (Port Said).— Met B., * Standard' correspondent, 
to-day. Met him at dinner about three weeks ago at Sir Oliver 
St. John's. How one does meet people one has met elsewhere ! 
Wandering about the world one meets a certam lot of people 
that one meets everywhere else out of England. It always 

" Some fragments of the diary retained by himself were picked up, 
as already mentioned, in the Desert, and a few additional extracts from 
these (sometimes deciphered with difficulty) are introduced further on. 
The remainder, and much the larger part, are taken from the somewhat 
fuller and more explanatory journal which he transmitted to his mother 
from Suez before the fatal start of August 8. 



[52] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

seems to me that I know more people in every foreign capital 
than I do in London. This is not, of course, really the case, 
but it is true that abroad I am certain to stumble casually on 
lots of people I know — that in foreign places I always find an 
entree at once into the whole society, so that I know everyone 
in a very short time — while, at home, London is so immense, 
that though one keeps on increasing one's acquaintance, there 
are always hundreds, not to say thousands, of whom one knows 
nothing. 

August I. — The position of affairs here is most extra- 
ordinary ; we are living nominally and apparently at peace with 
everyone — no militar>' precautions • are anywhere taken — no 
preparations made, and yet we are at war. We cannot buy a 
camel, nor a sheep, nor a donkey, nor a sack of straw, because 
we have no place to put anything in. We cannot collect 
animals at Suez until we take it. The same is the case at 
Ismailia. Thus we are apparently friendly with everyone, and 
liable at the same time to have the water cut off at any moment ; 
we cannot even begin to get into relations with the Arab 
Sheikhs, who, in the meantime, are gradually going over to 
Arabi. 

During his stay at Port Said, he wrote a memorandum 
to the Admiral (now before me) * On the Position of Affairs at 
Port Said and Ismailia,' but his chief occupation seems to 
have been making arrangements for a supply of fresh water, 
in case the existing supply should be cut off, which was 
threatened. In this he was associated with Captain Seymour 
of the *Iris.* On the 3rd, he writes : — 

Saw a man named D , an Englishman, an engineer, 

who has the ice factory here. He is employed by us to buy from 
the Canal Company six steam tugs, old and useless for their 
proper purpose. . . . If he gets them we can turn them into 
condensers, condensing 200 tons a day. We then propose to 
moor two or three big iron lighters in the corner of the Com- 
mercial Basin — holding about sixty tons between them — and to 
moor the * N. Briton ' (refugee ship) close by ; to make her small 
engines of use for condensing, and her tanks for storage, and to 
keep the iron lighters always full of water. The people can then 
come and get what they want out of the lighter. 

Friday^ August 4. — On board the * Penelope ; ' learnt that 
the Admiral had gone to Ismailia last night about 10. He has 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [53] 

not seen my memo, on Palmer's report, which has gone 
straight to Beauchamp Seymour. It does not matter except 
that I should have asked Hoskins whether he had the money 
for Palmer, before writing the memo., if I had known it would 
go straight to B. S. ;^2 5,000 will, according to Palmer, buy 
over 50,000 Arabs on the east of the Canal. I intend to 
urge that this money should be straightway sent down to him 
at Suez. ... I hear that most of the policemen here will join 
our side when the time comes, and carry on the ordinary and 
usual police work. This will be a great blessing, and saving 
of difficulties, though it will offend the European population. 
The Europeans at Alexandria are furious that we employ the 
native policemen, and write as if we were the lords and 
masters of Egypt already. It is the continually employing 
Europeans instead of natives which has been the root of all 
the evils in Egypt, and now this miserable European population 
howl because we don't exercise a most arbitrary authority, to 
which we have no right whatever, and turn out the police of the 
Khedive. 

. . . , the correspondent, went to Suez to-day — a 

good riddance, for it is a nuisance to have a man always 
pumping you. I wish I had known it in time enough to write 

to Palmer, and warn him to keep out of his way ! ... X 

here amused me the other day. I was talking about the water 
being cut off, and he said : * Ah, it really does not matter to 
me if they cut it off, for I always drink soda-water.' I 
mentally added, * with plenty of B.' 

From this forward I print the journal entire, omitting 
only some statements as to speed, &c., of the boat that 
carried him to Suez, 

August 5. — Got a message from the Admiral that he 
wanted to see me, and found that he had received orders to 
cut the telegraph wire between Kantara and El-Arish.* This 
is to be done without breaking the neutrality of the Suez Canal, 
so we cannot simply pick up the cable where it crosses the 
Canal, and take it away, nor can we land at Kantara. 

To land at or near El-Arish would be very risky, unless we 
were in communication with the Bedouins near. 

So I decided to go and consult and Palmer. 

I was given a picket boat, which is a large steam-launch 

* Kantara is on the Suez Canal, and El-Arish on the Mediterranean 
roast, nearly one hundred miles east of Port Said. 



[54] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

supposed to go 12 knots, but in fact not averaging more than 
9^. There was a Lieut. Grove and a middy with me, and we 
took a pilot. We left at 3h. 2om. . . . Between the nineteenth 
and twentieth mile-posts saw people working on the western 
bank. It did not look like fortifying the place, but fresh earth 
was being thrown over the bank. I could not make out what 
they were doing, but I was too low down to see. 

We arrived alongside the * Orion 'at IsmaiHaat about 8 P.M. 
The senior officer. Captain Fitzroy, was not on his ship, but 
was dining with Stevenson on the * Carysfort,' and thither I 
went. Found them half through dinner \ they gave me to 

eatj and then, having sent for we discussed matters. 

was of opinion that we could not depend on landing 

near El-Arish, which was also my very strong opinion. He 
wants himself to go to Gaza, where he says he knows the 
Governor. ... I did not think the proposal hopeful, but did 
not say so. Fitzroy told me that there were 3,000 men at 
Nifish, with their front facing the Canal to Ismailia, their right 
resting on the railway station, and their left towards the desert 
on the north ; and that the railway bridge to Suez over the 
Freshwater Canal, on their extreme right, was still intact ; 
four guns were counted, and horses were seen. This morn- 
ing two battalions were seen at drill, and this evening a 
larger number. There was a picket in the Arab town of 
Ismailia, and Lesseps himself was stopped by this picket. 
There is also constant communication between Nifish and 
Ismailia. 

The old Governor of Ismailia, Gaver Bey, being afraid of 
Ardbi, is on board one of the English men-of-war. The new 
Governor is Ari Effendi Zulf Agha, or some such name. He 
was some years ago cashier in the Custom House at Alexandria. 

knows him and thinks he could buy him, but he thinks 

that of everybody ! 

After about an hour we went on again. I slept a good deal 
between 10 and 2. After this we met another man-of-war 
launch, in which was Helsham Jones, going up to Ismailia to 
have a look round. 

We reached the flag-ship of Sir W. Hewett, V.C, K.C.B., 
at about 4 a.m. Stopped here to take in water, and then went 
ashore, as Hewett is living at the Suez Hotel. 

We had been carrying 20,000/. in gold, and I was not sorry 
to get rid of it. There was scarcely anyone on board the flag- 
ship besides the first lieutenant, who gave us sailors' coffee. I 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [55] 

do think the coffee you get on a man-of-war for nastiness beats 
even that on board a P. and O. , 

All the sailors are landed, as there was a scare the other 
night — last night, I think — which ended in nothing. It turns 
out that the water is not cut off from Suez. 

Sunday^ August 6. — Found Hewett at the hotel ; also 
Tanner, who was my fellow-passenger from London to Alexan- 
dria. Saw Palmer also. He is the professor of Arabic at Cam- 
bridge, and has travelled much in the Sinaitic Peninsula, and 
knows all the Arab Sheikhs. He has just come from among 
them, and is hopeful of buying about 50,000 over to us for 
about 25,000/. Had a long talk with him and determined to 
go and cut the wire myself ; this will help to show me how 
far Palmer's rather hopeful opinions are true. Palmer has 
arranged for a great meeting of Sheikhs in a few days, and 
if he were to go north to cut the cable he would miss this 
meeting, which might do incalculable injury. There is no 
one here to send except military and naval officers, who have 
never travelled among this sort of people ; and for every reason 
it is best for me to go. 

.... I brought Palmer down authority to spend 20,000/. 
amongst the Bedouins.^ 

We are in a very curious position now, but I do not think 
that Ardbi will break the neutrality of the Canal as long as we 
don't ; and as all Europe is against any one doing anything to 
affect its neutrality, I don't suppose our Government will dare 
to do it, so that we shall probably have to march on Cairo from 
Suez direct, and, without using the fertile and well-watered 
waadi^ we shall have to go straight across the Desert. Then I 
believe we shall find ourselves at war with Turkey, if not with 
Russia also, and several of the other Powers. 

Of course I had to set to work to buy an outfit, Arab clothes, 
pillows, cooking-pots, meat, flour, &c. &c. Then I got hold of 
Lieut. Brant, gunnery lieutenant, and got from him all the 
things necessary, gun-cotton, Bickford's fuse, detonators, axes, 

* Captain Gill was mistaken in supposing, as he appears to have 
done (or, at any rate, as has been concluded from this passage in 
connection with a preceding paragraph), that the money which Lieutenant 
Grove., R.N., brought down in the picket-boat in which Gill travelled 
was an advance for Palmer. It was for the Admiral s chest, and to 
meet all demands thereon that might arise (inclusive doubtless of any 
advances to Palmer that might be authorised). See Lord Northbrook's 
statements in the House of Lords, March 16, 1883. See also Mr. 
Besant's Memoir of Palmer, p. 301. 



[56] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

&c., and am ready now to destroy one of the greatest works of 
civilisation — a telegraph line. Suez is not altogether or by any 
means deserted ; still it is empty. War is always melancholy 
to me. The sad side of it always forces itself on my attention 
somehow. The newspaper correspondent^ who lives in an 
atmosphere of gunpowder^ and does not know what it is to 
travel in an uncivilised country in a state of profound peace ^ 
does not feel it like one who has travelled about a good deal 
and lived amongst a poor and uncivilised people in a state of 
peace. 

Many laughable incidents occurred at the capture of Suez. 
Colonel Tanner, with a dozen marines, trying to catch the train, 
in which the Governor was being carried off, and Arabi's 
soldiers looking at them out of window. How Palmer im- 
pressed Captain C (the oldest resident Englishman's) 

favourite donkey, on which Helsham Jones mounted, tumbled 

into the Freshwater Canal, and spoilt the saddle. C does 

not see the point of the landing now, at all ! How the only 
two soldiers who stopped behind did not like giving up their 
arms. Poor fellows ! I believe there was something good about 
those two ! They stayed behind, and they almost cried when 
they had their rifles taken from them. 

I went out to the Camp, as it is now called — ^Victoria 
Hospital it was in 1869, when Dick Roberts lived there, with 
whom I spent a day. Suez was quite a gay place in those days. 
The table d'hote of this hotel was always crowded, and there 
were plenty of ladies. My next visit here was on returning 
from China, and the Drummonds were here too. 

My watch has come to grief I usually travel with 

about half-a-dozen timepieces altogether ; hitherto my watch 
has never stopped. For the first time I believe in all my travels 
I have only one watch ; now something has gone wrong with 
the catch of the winding gear, and it won't wind up. 

These words are the last in William Gill's journal sent 
home, as his habit was, to his mother and sister. One of 
the torn and partly obliterated fragments picked up in the 
Desert by Sir Charles Warren goes further : — 

Monday^ August 7. — The Admiral would not let us start to- 
day, and indeed it won't make much delay, for Palmer is expect- 
ing Emtaiyarr, chief of the Hawetit.® If we miss him it will 

• This is the man better known as Meter Abu Sofiah, on whose 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [57] 

delay us, as he has all the country close to Suez. A steam- 
launch went up to-day to reconnoitre. I went with it. Char- 
rington, the flag-lieutenant of the Admiral, was with us, and a 

middy of course (Gore Brown). Gordon, of the (an officer 

waiting for his regiment), came too. . . . Helsham Jones rode 
out with a naval officer ; he also saw them, but being on the 
Cairo side of the Canal, they levelled their rifles at him. This 
shows that Arabi will respect the Canal as long as we do. Our 
party came from Canal, or Canal land, and his soldiers did not 
notice us. Jones came on the other side, or land not belonging 
to Canal, and he was threatened. 

In the evening Emtaiyarr arrived, much to our relief. This 
man has never seen a house before. Arabi has sent to him 
many times, and he has always refused to go ; but a word from 
Palmer brought him in. The Admiral gave him a sword. He 
was immensely proud. 

Tuesday^ August 8. — A ship arrived with the late 72nd this 
morning. 

These are his last written words. 

Professor Palmer had reached Suez on August i, after that 
venturesome journey from Gaza, described in Mr. Besant's 
biography of his friend, in the chapter entitled * The Great 
Ride of the Sheikh Abdulla.' On his way he had met Mislah, 
the Sheikh of the Teyahah Bedouins, who introduced him 
to Meter Abu Sofiah already mentioned, as the head Sheikh 
of the Lehewat, occupying all the country east of Suez. 

According to Sir Charles Warren's report, both statements 
were deceptions. Meter Abu Sofiah was not a Sheikh of 
the Lehewit, and that tribe does not occupy the position 
alleged And it was principally, he considers, owing to 
the difficulties arising from these deceptions that Palmer 
and his companions fell into the hands of the Bedouins 
who murdered them. 

Professor Palmer had made arrangements for certain 
Sheikhs of the Desert tribes to meet him on the 12th, at 
Nakhl, which is a fort in the Desert about half-way between 
Suez and Akaba. And at his request Lieutenant Harold 
Charrington, Admiral Hewett's flag-lieutenant, was to ac- 

duplicity and avarice the chief blame of the catastrophe seems to rest 
His tribe is called Lehewat. 



[58] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

company him as a guarantee to the chiefs that Palmer 
v/as acting on the part of the Queen's Government. Palmer 
took with him 3,000/. in sovereigns, received from the 
* Euryalus.' And this, there is no just ground for question- 
ing, was intended mainly to procure camels ; though there 
is no need to ignore the perfectly legitimate object of the 
expedition, which was the chief duty which Palmer had taken 
upon him, viz. to secure the adhesion of the sheikhs. 

Gill, it would appear, arranged to keep them company, and 
afterwards to proceed to destroy the wire. The party, consist- 
ing of the three English gentlemen, with Gill's dragoman, 
Khalil Atik, Palmer's cook (a Hebrew, Bokhor Hass<in), Meter 
Abu Sofiah and his nephew, left Suez, in Arab clothing, on 
the 8th for the Well of Moses, where they picked up camels 
and camelmen. They started from the Wells next morning. 
Admiral Hewett does not appear to have expected to hear from 
them before the i8th. Even some days before this date dis- 
quieting rumours began to spread, but no serious alarm was 
taken, and on the 27th Admiral Hoskins reported that Gill was 
stated to be safe, and was expected to reach Suez the day after. 

This report appears to be connected with what was heard 

and repeated by Mr. , who had been sent about the 

middle of August to Gaza. His people brought him news 
that Gill had been at an encampment of the Terabin Arabs 
in that neighbourhood recently, and had started for Suez ; "^ 

a mystification which has not been explained. But 

also heard a rumour that two white men had been murdered. 

In England, though much reticence was observed, just 
anxiety seems to have been awakened at the Admiralty, 
earlier than at Suez ; and Colonel (now Sir Charles) Warren, 
R.E., whose experience and qualifications for dealing with 
an inquiry among Arabs were estimated highly, and not 
more highly than the result has shown that they deserved, 
was sent out in the end of August to advise and assist 

' These lines are part of the original memoir as printed in the 
Royal Engineers^ Journal for December 1882. They are quite corrobo- 
rated by Colonel Warren's letter to Lord Alcester da ed February 16, 
J 883, and published in the * Supplementary Correspondence' presented 
to Parliament. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [59] 

Admiral Hewett in this matter. Warren proceeded to Tor, 
and at a later date to Akaba, by steamer. He found the Arabs 
at both places singularly indisposed to enter into any com- 
munication ; but up to the end of September, and even later, 
he did not despair of the travellers being still alive, and it was 
not till October 20 that he could report the story of their 
having been attacked on August 10, and put to death. 

Four days later (October 24) Colonel Warren was on 
the scene of the murder, and all doubt was at an end. 

I shall not dwell on the complex and painful details of 
the last scenes. All that could be derived from a compari- 
son of the evidence and confessions has been detailed by 
Colonel Warren in his letter to the Admiralty of April 10 
(*Supp. Corres.' pp. 24, seqq.\ and reprinted by Mr. Besant 
in his Life of Palmer. On the night of the 9th the party 
encamped at Wadi Kahalin (which I do not find on any 
map, but which must lie somewhat less than 30 miles S.S.E. 
of Suez). Here they were detained a great part of the next 
day by the search for two camels that had been stolen 
during the night, and they did not quit the ground until 
3 P.M. After midnight, at a place called Maharib, in Wadi 
Sadr,® they were attacked and fired on by Bedouins in 
ambuscade, some twenty-five in number. Nothing certain 
is known of what passed in the capture, but it is probable 
(says Colonel Warren) that the Bedouins, finding they were 
so few in number, rushed in upon them and disarmed them. 
Meter Abu Sofiah had escaped to his own camp, and on the 
nth brought down a few of his tribesmen, ostensibly for 
the rescue of the travellers. He found them stripped but 
unguarded, and at this time an escape seems to have been 
possible, had the guide been true. But the enemy returned ; 
Abu Sofiah went through some attempt, or pretext, of nego- 
tiation for ransom, which was rejected, and they were left 
to their fates ; * it being understood by the Meter and those 
who accompanied him that the party were to be killed.' 
They were driven, stripped to their shirts and bareheaded, 

• This has generally been written Wady Sudr\ but I gather that the 
vowel is the fatha or short rf, and the name in systematic spelling 
would be written Sadr^ possibly ^adr. 



[6o] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

under an August sun, to a ravine in the Wadi Sadr, and 
there the murder was accomplished. 

They died, let it be distinctly said, honourably engaged 
in their country's service. But whether the murder was 
the act of greedy ruffians, or was ordered from a distance, 
we see as yet no absolutely clear ground for judgment. 
Indeed, Sir Charles Warren himself, though tending to the 
former view, evidently has doubts. I incline to the other, 
and to assent to all the grounds for doubt in that direction, 
which are so well stated by Mr. Besant.® Indeed, cold- 
blooded murder of this kind is not usual with Bedouins. 

A question which has frequently been asked is why 
Admiral Hewett allowed the party to go on such an expedi- 
tion, and with such a sum of money, without escort ? I believe 
that there were no means of supplying escort, and that the 
question therefore for Sir W. Hewett's decision really was, 
whether in such circumstances the party was to go without 
escort or not to go at all. Palmer certainly impressed him 
with the view that there was no serious danger. The real 
danger, which almost certainly produced the catastrophe — 
that is, the agency of the Shedid Sheikhs at Cairo in stirring 
up Bedouins in their allegiance — seems not to have been 
present to any one's mind. It will'also be seen from Warren's 
letter (in the * Supp. Corres.* p. i6) that Palmer had written 
on the 4th to Meter Abu Sofiah desiring him to come to 
Moses' Wells with twenty armed men to escort him to Nakhl. 
We do not know whether Palmer had agreed with Abu Sofiah 
to dispense with these, or, on finding that they were not forth- 
coming, still decided to go on, in order to keep the appoint- 
ment at Nakhl, trusting to the safeguard of Abu Sofiah. 

The tragedy occurred on August ii, apparently in the 
afternoon. 

Colonel Warren, when he reached the scene more than 
ten weeks later (October 24), collected the very scanty 
relics of the victims and of their clothing, &c. He then 
proceeded to Nakhl, where he succeeded, without resist- 
ance, in installing the new Governor who had accompanied 
him from Suez. The old Governor was arrested. 

• Life of E. H, Palmer j pp. 320, seqq. 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [6i] 

Meter Abu Sofiah on November 6 gave himself up to 
Captain Stephenson, R.N., at Suez. He was examined by 
Colonel Warren, but died in the native hospital at Suez, 
January 6, so that he never was tried. 

By the extraordinary and prolonged exertions of Colonel 
Warren, involving not only much hardship and considerable 
danger, but the exercise of great tact, judgment, and patience, 
the story was traced out, evidence collected, and the 
majority of the chief participators in the crime brought to 
justice. These were tried in his presence by the Egyptian 
commission at Tantah, February 6 to 14, and five of 
the principal culprits condemned to death ; eight others 
(including the ex-governor of Nakhl) to various terms of 
imprisonment ; capital sentence being also pronounced 
against five who were still at large. The execution was 
carried out at Zagazig on March i. 

The three victims of this memorable calamity might all 
be called young men, and full of promise, but two of them 
were also men who had given such proofs of their great 
qualities, * that their loss might have dimmed a victory.* * 
They will not, I trust, be forgotten by the country for whose 
service they gave their lives. And in regard to this subject, 
I venture to quote here words of my own used at the Royal 
Geographical Society on November 13 — words which also 
give briefly my impression of my friend's character : — 

.... What a singular Nemesis has brooded over the fate 
of those travellers who were the earliest in our day to take part 
in rending the veil which hung over these Indo-Chinese frontier 
lands ! Francis - Gamier, Cooper, Margary, and now poor Gill 
— all perishing by violence. Three of the four I knew ; two of 
these, Gamier and Gill, did me the honour to call me friend. 

It was surely, my Lord, a sad and strange lot that fell to me, 
under Providence, twice within ten days last month, to be called 
on, through no action of my own, to fumish notices to the public 
press of the careers of friends of mine, each eminent for what 
he had accomplished — both still greater in promise for the 
future — and each of them young enough to have been my son ! 
— one, Arthur Bumell, a scholar, and a ripe and good one, the 

* Words of Lord Dalhousie, in a G. O., regarding the murder of 
Colonel Mackeson at Peshawar in 1853. 



[62] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

most eminent scholar, indeed, on the lists of the modem Indian 
Services ; a man of many high qualities, but eminently a man 
of books. The other, William Gill, a man to whom action — 
action — action — was everything; reserved, often taciturn in 
company, but having beneath that undemonstrative exterior a 
soul of fire ! 

Look at his constant eagerness to devote himself to useful 
enterprise ; to take on himself any amount of toil ; to face any 
amount of danger and hardship— and, still harder to bear, any 
amount of weary waiting, and the monotony of temporary 
failure, when his country seemed to need it at his hands ; and 
all this at his own charges — literally spending and spent in the 
public service. 

Lately, by favour of his family, a vast mass of his journals, 
which he kept in great detail, and regularly forwarded for his 
mother's perusal (for he was a good son as well as a good 
servant of his country), have passed under my eye. Reviewing 
through these his brief career, and the vast amount of toilsome 
enterprise crowded into it, it seems to me that his ardent and 
loyal soul had wrested from the enemy the pet adage of treason, 
and bound as a cognisance round his gallant brow, * England's 
necessity is my opportunity^ 

Let me, before I sit down, add a word more regarding this 
good soldier and his companions. It was no common occasion 
on which they were sent forth into the Desert of the Wander- 
ings, from which their footsteps were never to emerge ; it was by 
no common tragedy that their bright career was quenched ; they 
were no common men ! Let England show that she feels it ! 

In one of those journals of which I have spoken, to which 
my friend used to commit his thoughts in his wanderings, he 
one day wrote thus : — 

* I have been considering what I should give as the defini- 
tion of a Great Power, and I have come to the conclusion that 
a Great Power is one which can best protect its subjects where- 
ever they may be.' 

It must needs be that disasters should sometimes come. 
England cannot everywhere anticipate them. But when they 
come from crime and treachery, surely, in spite of all that is 
come and gone, England may still say with truth, * Woe to him 
from whom they come ! ' And she will, we may gather from a 
late • reply of Mr. Gladstone's, make provision for those of the 
families left behind who may require such provision. But more 
than that ! She is bound to see that, if their mortal part lay 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL, [63] 

for weeks and months dishonoured and bleaching beneath the 
desert sun, at least no honour shall now be grudged to their 
memory, but that a tablet in St. Paul's or Westminster shall 
commemorate their names, their career, and their common fate. 
But yet again. My Lord Aberdare, you referred in your 
Address to those thousands of rock-inscriptions on Sinai, which 
Palmer had interpreted. I would fain see another rock-inscrip- 
tion added ! I would fain see that, aloft on that fatal cliff in 
Paran, a panel should be hewn, and on it cut, large and deep, so 
as to show black in the mid-day sun, and to be legible for miles 
across the waste, such words as these : * Goy Traveller^ and tell 
in England that we three died here in obedience to her behests^ 

The desire expressed in the foregoing sentences for the 
erection of some public memorial in honour of these three 
gallant gentlemen is now, thanks to the generous zeal with 
which the object has been promoted by Lord Northbrook, 
in process of fulfilment. The scanty relics of the murdered 
men collected by Colonel Warren were solemnly interred in 
the crypt of St. Paul's on April 6, 1883, in presence of Lord 
Northbrook and many friends of the deceased, including a 
great many oflficers of Engineers. A granite slab marked 
with their initials and ages will cover the tomb, whilst a 
brass tablet on the wall will briefly record the circumstances. 
And arrangements, I understand, are being made to cut an 
inscription on the rocks in Wadi Sadr.^ 

I would, with entire adoption, add to what has been said 
a few words written to me, when the positive news of 
Gill's fate was received, by his friend and mine, Mr. Edward 
Colborne Baber : — 

I know he was a good son, a good friend, and a good soldier, 
and a most accomplished traveller. 

Mr. Baber wrote also : — 

I was engaged in defending his remarkable and minute 
accuracy as a traveller against a very kindly critic, on the very 

* A painted window in memory of Captain Gill has been put up by 
his brother officers of the corps in Rochester Cathedral ; a tablet also in 
Brighton College chapel by subscription of those connected with that 
institution ; and three * Gill Scholarships ' for the sons of officers of the 
army have been founded at the same college, by subscription largely 
aid^ by the family. 

" d 



[64] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF 

day when the sad calamity of his death was made known ; and 
what is strange enough, on the same day I received a letter 
from him which had been delayed, bearing date July 14, and 
containing these almost prescient words : — 

* I am tearing my hair that I am not in Egypt, but if there 
is any sort of military expedition I shall go there either on duty 
or on leave, and I think that, peace having been concluded, my 
next wanderings will be in Asia Minor or in Syria. But God 
knows I seldom go to a place that I have thought much about.'' 

He would often tell me that he had a horror of old age ; and 
in answer to the argument that age is the period of literary 
enjoyment, and that there is pleasure in watching the labour of 
others, which is only the continuation and completion of our 
own, he would reply : * No ; life is worthless without activity. 
I do not wish to live long.' 

Colonel Frederick Burnaby wrote in the * Times' of 
October 30, among other things, of Captain Gill : — 

In the age in which we live, men like this unfortunate officer 
are seldom seen. Unfortunate officer ! Yet why should I have 
written those words .'* He died not in battle, it is true, but was 
slain after having been employed upon the most dangerous duty 
which he could perform— that of cutting a telegraph wire in a 
hostile country.^ Certain death would naturally have been the 
lot of any one if discovered. He knew full well his risk, but 
danger to him was nothing new. He played his life as he had 
played it on many other occasions. This time was once too 
often. He died, as he would have wished, for England. 

Of fine- weather friends there -are enough and to spare ; but 
friends such as Captain Gill, whose first thought was for others 
and how best to lend them a helping hand, are few and far be- 
tween. Only accident made us aware of his numerous acts of 
generosity, and many people who have been aided by him will 
feel acutely the death of their benefactor. His good deeds 
were done secretly — his right hand did not know what his left 
gave away in charity. The poor have lost a friend, the profes- 
sion to which he belonged has been deprived of one of its 
brightest ornaments. 

The Rev. Dr. Macduff, who had known Gill from 
boyhood, writes of him in a work called * Early Graves ' : — 
All that was allied to, or had connivance with what was 

It was then supposed that this duty had been accomplished before 
the disaster. ^ 



CAPTAIN WILLIAM JOHN GILL. [65] 

base, or mean, or impure, ignoble or unworthy, was simply 
with him impossible and repugnant to his whole nature. I 
firmly believe no one more truly than he has been now served 
heir to the legacy bequeathed by Divine lips in that lofty beati- 
tude — * Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' 

We have seen how often Captain Gill's adventurous 
journeys were made when on leave from his regular duties, 
and strangers might not unreasonably ask how such frequent 
leave from these could be given to any officer. But it is 
not often that burning energy, abundant means, and the 
desire to employ them in the public service are combined, 
at least to such a degree as they were in this young engineer 
officer ; and we may conceive how unwillingly the Depart- 
ment would have lost the aid of an officer so devoted, and 
so ready on every occasion to undertake the acquisition of 
knowledge useful to his country, provided it had a spice 
of difficulty and danger, at his own charges. Indeed most 
hearty and generous testimony has been borne to his value, 
in a paragraph published by the * Times ' on November 2, 
which I can hardly err in attributing to Colonel East, his 
immediate superior in his Department of the War Office : — 

It will be no easy matter to replace him in the Intelligence 
Department, where he had been employed for the last six years, 
and for the duties of which he possessed special qualifications. 
Owing to the confidential nature of the work on which he was 
employed, it is not possible that the great value of the informa- 
tion he has at various times, and at great risks, collected, can 
ever be known to the public, but it has been fully appreciated 
by those for whom he worked so zealously. One of his most 
hazardous journeys was undertaken last winter, and the graphic 
and modest manner in which he narrated the many dangerous 
adventures he then encountered elicited on several occasions 
the strongest expressions of approval and admiration from his 
Royal Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding-in -Chief, from 
Sir Garnet Wolseley, and from General Herbert, the Quarter- 
master-General. Not only will his untimely death be grievously 
felt by his many personal friends, but the State has lost in him 
an experienced, able, and trusted servant, whose services could 
ill be spared at any time, but the loss of which will be particu- 
larly felt during the present unsettled state of affairs in the East. 

d2 



[66] A BRIEF MEMOIR OF CAPTAIN GILL. 

Baron von Richthofen's testimony to the value of Gill's 
journeys in Western China and Tibet has been already 
quoted I extract a few more words of a recent letter from 
the same great traveller and geographer : — 

I have only twice seen Gill for a few days, but I deplore his 
death as that of a friend. Reserved on the surface, but ardent 
below ; these words render fully his character. I like to recall 
in my mind the first impression which I got of him before he 
went to China, and which satisfied me at once that he was un- 
usually qualified for carrying out successfully his great plans. 

I then saw him again after his return, calm and modest as 
before, but just as ardent and ready to engage in new en- 
terprises. He has deserved a better fate, . . . although, in 
either case, he lost his life honourably for his country, en- 
gaged in a brave and daring enterprise. . . . Gill was at the 
commencement of his career : his boldness and enterprise 
might have conducted him to deeds of importance. However, 
his travels in China, of which the excursion to Sung-pan-ting 
shows best his eminent personal qualifications as a traveller, 
will secure them a lasting and very honourable memory beyond 
his native country. 



Fame is thefpurre that the clear fpirit doth raise 
(That last infirmitie of noble mind) 
To /com delights^ and live laborious dayes; 
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find, 
And think to burft out intofudden blaze ^ 
Comes the blind Furie with the abhorred f hears 
And flits the thin-fpun life, 

William Gill was indeed one who scorned delights and 
lived laborious days, nor need we contest that the infirmity 
of which Milton speaks in those magnificent lines had some 
hold on him ; but it was far from being the leading motive 
of his acts. That lay in the burning desire to put to some 
good use the internal force of which he was conscious, to 
make some sacrifice for the Country which he loved, and for 
whose honour and greatness he was very jealous. She has 
lost that loving and ungrudging service all too early, as it 
seems to our mortal and partial vision ; not, however, 
through the movement of a * blind Fury ' or stolid Atropos, 
but by the Will of Him who sees and guides the Whole. 




3 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

{Originally written 1879 ; Recast 1883.) 



§ I. * The River of Golden Sand ' was printed during 
the absence of its author at Constantinople in 1879 (see 
p. [31]), and we had been so much in communication on 
the subject of his intended book that the business of seeing 
it through the press in his absence seemed naturally to 
devolve on me. On Gill's return he and my friend Mr. 
Murray asked me to write a preface to the book ; and out 
of this request arose the somewhat lengthy essay which is 
now reproduced, with a few modifications, including some 
passages intended to bring it up to the date of the present 
republication. 

§ 2. The * general reader,' whose eye may be caught by 
the title of this work, will not, we trust, be misled by the 
familiar melody of Bishop Heber to suppose that the tra* 
veller will conduct him to * Afric's sunny fountains.' The 
* River of Golden Sand ' is a translation of the name Kin- 
Sha-Kiang^ or (in the new orthography, in which I find it 
hard to follow my author) Chin- Sha- Chiang (Gold-Sand- 
River), by which the Chinese, or at least Chinese geogra- 
phers, style the great Tibetan branch of the Yang-tzu, down 
to its junction, at Sii-chau (or Swi-Fu, as it is now called), 
with the Wen or Min River, descending from Ssii-Ch'uan. 
Of other names we shall speak a little below. 

It is proposed now to indicate some of the points of 
geographical interest in the little-known region of which the 
River of Golden Sand is as it were the axis — that region 
of Eastern Tibet which intervenes between the two great 



[68] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

historic continents of India and China — and to sketch the 
history of explorations in this tract previous to that of Cap- 
tain Gill. If in this task I sometimes use words that I have 
used before, on one or other of the somewhat frequent 
occasions that this dark region, from which the veil lifts but 
slowly, has attracted me,^ let me be forgiven. And all the 
more one may overcome scruples at such repetition in seeing 
how persistent error is. I recently read of * an able argu- 
ment ' (I certainly did not read the argument itself) to prove 
the identity of the Tibetan Tsanpu and the Irawadi. Life 
seems too short for the study of able demonstrations that 
the moon is made of green cheese, but, if these are still to be 
proffered, there can be no harm in stating the facts again. ^ 

I do not forget the pungent words with which Abb^ 
Hue concludes his sparkling Souvenirs d'un Voyage : ' Quoi- 
qu'il soit arrive au savant Orientaliste, J. Klaproth, de 
trouver FArchipel Fotocki, sans sortir de son cabinet, il est en 
gdndral assez difficile de faire des d^couvertes dans un pays 
sans y avoir pdnetr^.' ^ But as regards a large part of the 
country of which I am going to speak we are all on a level, 
for no one has seen it, not even the clever Abbe himself 
and his companion ; and of geographical information re- 
garding the region in question, they can hardly be said to 
have brought anything back. 

* E.g., in a review of Hue and Gabet in Blackwood, 1852 ; in con- 
nection with the Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission to Ava (Calcutta 
1856, London 1858) ; in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 

for 1 861, p. 367 ; in the notes to Marco Polo ; and in various papers in 
Ocean Highways and the Geographical Magazine, and discussions in the 
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society (the last occasion reported 
in the number for May 1882, pp. 269-271). 

* Since the first publication of this essay I have seen the work in 
question ; and I desire to say that I mean no disparagement to its 
author, Mr. R. Gordon, a most diligent observer, and valued public 
servant ; though I do regret the time and ingenuity expended on the 
maintenance (as I judge) of an untenable theory. 

* The name of Potocki Islands was given by Klaproth in honour of 
Count Potocki, under whom he had served on a Russian mission to Pe- 
king, to a group of eighteen islands in the Gulf of Corea. This sheet 
of the Jesuit map of China had been mislaid or omitted when D'Anville 
engraved it. Klaproth afterwards became owner of the missing tracing, 
and on it, sans sortir de son cabinet^ found these islands, and claimed 
their discovery. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [69] 

§ 3. Everyone who has looked at a map of Asia with his 
eyes open must have been struck by the remarkable aspect 
of the country between Assam and China, as represented, 
where a number of great rivers rush southward in parallel 
courses, within a very narrow span of longitude, their de- 
lineation on the map recalling the fascis of thunderbolts in 
the clutch of Jove, or (let us say, less poetically) the aggre- 
gation of parallel railway lines at Clapham Junction. 

Reckoning these rivers from the westward, the first of 
importance (i.) is the Subanshiri, which breaks through the 
Himalaya, and enters the valley of Assam in long. 94° 9'. 
This is a great river, and undoubtedly comes from Tibet, 
i.e. from Lhassa territory. Some good geographers have 
started the hypothesis that the Subanshiri, rather than the 
Dihong, is the outflow of the Tsanpu ; but recent informa- 
tion shows this to be next to impossible. 

§ 4. The next of these great rivers (ii.) is the Dihong, 
which enters Assam in long. 95° 17', and joins the Lohit — 
or proper Brahmaputra — near Sadiya. Though the identity 
of this river with the great river of Central Tibet, the Yaru 
Tsanpu, has never yet been continuously traced as a fact of 
experience, every new piece of evidence brings us nearer to 
assurance of the identity, and one might be justified in saying 
that no reasonable person now doubts it. Instead of being 
a new and heterodox theory invented by a European geo- 
grapher, as its latest opponents have imagined, it is the old 
belief of the natives on both sides of the mountains. It was 
indeed the belief of the illustrious Rennell, who first recog- 
nised the magnitude of the Brahmaputra, long before we 
had any knowledge of the Dihong, or of the manner and 
volume of its emergence from the Mishmi Hills.* Many 

* * On tracing this river in 1765, 1 was no less surprised at finding it 
rather larger than the Ganges than at its course previous to its entering 
Bengal. This I found to be from the east ; although all the former 
accounts represented it as from the north ; and ' this unexpected dis- 
covery soon led to inquiries, which furnished me with an account of its 
general course to within 100 miles of the place where Du Halde left the 
Sanpoo. I could no longer doubt that the Burrampooter and Sanpoo 
were one and the same river, and to this was added the positive assur- 
ances of the Assamers *' that their river came from the north- west. 



[7o] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

years, however, before Rennell's work was published, in fact, 
twelve years before Rennell was born, P. Orazio della Penna, 
writing in Tibet (1730), had stated that the river was then 
believed to join the Ganges, explaining (from such maps as 
were available to him in those days) ' towards Rangamatti 
and Chittagong/ A conjecture to the same effect occurs in 
the memoir on the map of Tibet, by P^re Regis, at the end 
of du Halde. Giorgi, in his Alphabetum Tibetanum (Rome 
1762), says the like.^ The same view is distinctly set forth 
in the geography of Tibet which is translated in the 14th 
volume of the great French collection of Memoires concer- 
nant les Chinois^ a document compiled by order of the 
Emperor K'ang-hi, and issued, with others of like character, 
in 1696, This represents the Yaru Tsanpu as rising to the 
west of Tsang (West Central Tibet), passing to the north- 
east of Jigar-Kungkar (south of Lhassa), flowing south-east 
some 400 miles, and then issuing at the south of Wei (or 
U, East Central Tibet) into the region of the LokKaptra^ 
* tattooed people ' (/>. Mishmis et hoc genus omne) ; then 
turning south-west it enters India, and discharges into the 
southern sea (pp. 177-178). Mr. David Scott, the first 
British commissioner of Assam after the first Burmese War 
(about 1826), met with Lhassa merchants in that province, 
who told him that the Brahmaputra was their own river, that 
it passed Lhassa, penetrated the frontier mountains, and 
there received an additional supply from the Brahmakund. 
Wilcox heard the same from a Mishmi chief. 

§ 5. The Pundit Nain Singh, on the journey to Lhassa 
which first made him famous (1865), was told by Nepalese, 
Newars, and Kashmiris at that city, that the great river of 

through the Bootan Mountains."* — Mem, of a Map of Hindoostan^ 3rd 
edition, pp. 356-7, see also p. 259. Rennell's actual knowledge of the 
Brahmaputra extended only to long. 91°, a few miles above Goalpara, 
tut his sketch of the probable entrance of the river from Tibet is very 
like the truth. On the other hand, it is curious how he was misled as 
to the source of the Ganges, which he identified with what are really 
the upper waters of the Indus and Sutlej. The importance of the 
Dihong was first pointed out by Lieutenant Wilcox in 1826, in the 
Calcutta Gazette. (See As. Res. vol. xvii.) 

* * Sese tandem in Gangem exonerat.^ But Giorgi 's information was 
derived from della Penna and the other Capuchins. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [71] 

Tibet was the Brahmaputra ; whilst all the natives who were 
questioned also declared that, after flowing east for a consider- 
able distance, it flowed down into India. The Pundit's in- 
formation on his last great journey, when he crossed the river 
somewhat further to the eastward, before striking south into 
Assam, did not add much, but it was all in corroboration of 
the same view.^ And this has been still further confirmed 
by the report of exploration from the Chief of the Indian 
surveys for 1878-9. 

The explorer (N — m — g) took up the examination of the 
Tsanpu at Chetang, where it was crossed by Nain Singh on 
his way from Lhassa to Assam (in about long. 91° 43', lat. 
29° 15'), and followed it a long way to the eastward. He 
found that the river, before turning south, flows much 
further east than had been supposed, and even north-east. 
It reaches its most northerly point in about long. 94°, and 
lat. 30°, some 12 m. to the north-east of Chamkar. The 
river then turns due south-east, but the explorer was not 
able to follow it beyond a place, 15 miles from the great 
bend, called Gya-la Sindong, There, however, he saw that 
it flowed on for a great distance, passing through a consider- 
able opening in the mountain ranges, to the west of a high 
peak caXXtd /ung'la, Chamkar appears in D'Anville's map 
as Tchamka, and in one of Klaproth's ^ as Temple Djamga^ 
in a similar position >\nth regard to the river. And Gya-la 
Sindong seems to be the Temp, Sengdam of the latter map, 
standing just at the heaCd of the * defile Sing-ghian Khial^ by 
which Klaproth carried off" the waters of the Tsanpu into 
the Irawadi. If the position of Gya-la Sindong as deter- 
mined by the explorer is correct, its direct distance from the 
highest point hitherto fixed on the Dihong river, from the 
Assam side, is only about 100 miles.® 

• See Journal of Royal Geographical Society^ xlvii. p. n6. It is 
remarkable that the information collected by the Pundit on his first 
journey was most accurate as to the position where the river turns to the 
south, which he placed in about long. 94°. (See Montgomerie, ip 
y, R. G, S.f xxxviii. p. 218, note.) His later conclusion was less 
accurate. 

' In vol. iii. of his MSmoires Relatifs d, VAsie, 

* This is just the space at which Rennell, 100 years ago, estimated 
the unknown gap. (See p. [69] note^ above.) 



[72] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

§ 6. Evidence more recent and more positive has been 
adduced, in the end of 1882, by the return of another of 
Gen. Walker's explorers after an absence of four years in 
Tibet and Mongolia. Omitting the greater part of his travels, 
which are not relevant to the present question, we may state 
briefly that after visiting Ta-Chien-Lu and Bat'ang, he got 
as far as Sama (or Samd, see pp. [77-78] infra) in an attempt 
to reach Assam by the direct route. Here he was stopped, 
and had to take the circuitous route by Alanto and Gyamdo, 
whence he turned to Chetang on the Tsanpu, and thence 
by Giangze Long and Phari to Darjiling. Now, as General 
Walker justly observes, if the Tsanpu river passes into the 
Irawadi, the traveller must have crossed it between Bat'ang 
and Sama, between Sama and Gyamdo, and again at Chetang. 
But he is positive that he crossed the Tsanpu only once, viz. 
at Chetang ; and that on the way from Sama to Gyamdo 
there is a great range to the west separating the basin of the 
affluents of the Tsanpu from that of the streams flowing to 
the east One of these latter may possibly fall into the 
Irawadi, but the Tsanpu assuredly cannot do so. 

We have mentioned above that some have supposed 
the Subanshiri to be the real continuation of the Tsanpu. 
The idea seems to have been grounded in part on an ex- 
aggerated estimate of the volume of the Subanshiri, and 
partly on Nain Singh's indications (in 1874) of the course 
of the Tsanpu, which seemed to bring it in such close juxtapo- 
sition to the Subanshiri as to allow no room for the develop- 
ment of another river bf such volume as was attributed to 
the latter. The last of these foundations for the theory 
has been removed by the explorer N^m — g's extended 
journey, carrying the south-eastern bend of the Tsanpu 
so much further to the east ; and the first also was erron- 
eous. Careful and detailed observations by Lieut. Harman 
in 1877-78 give the comparative volumes of the Assam 
rivers with which we have to do, at their mean low level, as 
follows : — 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [73] 



Cubic feet 


Cubic feet 


per second 


per second 


Dihong . . . 55,400 


Dihong and Dibong be- 


Brahmaputra (*Lohit') 


fore union with Brah- 


above Sadiya . , 33,832 


maputra (* Lohit*) . 82,652 


Ditto at the Brahmah- 


The combined (Brahma- 


Kund . • • 25,000 


putra) river at Dib- 


Dibong , , , 27,202 


rugarh . . .116,115 




The Subanshiri . . 16,945 



We see here how the Dihong vastly surpasses in discharge 
not only the Subanshiri, but also the Lohit Brahmaputra 
and the Dibong, while both greatly exceed the Subanshiri.^ 
§ 7. Very eminent geographers have, however, not been 
content to accept the view of the identity of the Tsanpu and 
the Brahmaputra, and several have contended that the Ira- 
wadi of Burma was the true continuation of the great Tibetan 
river. D'Anville, I believe, was the first to start this idea.* 
It was repeated by our countryman Alexander Dalrymple, 
the compiler of the * Oriental Repertory ' and much else, the 
founder of the Hydrographic Department of the Admiralty, 
and a very able geographer, in a map on a small scale which 
he put together for the illustration of Symes's * Mission to 
Ava ' (1800). The idea was maintained at a later date with 
great force and insistence by that remarkable and erratic 

• It is of some interest to compare these measurements with those 
made by Bedford and Wilcox in 1825-26. They were as follows (see 
Asiatic Researches^ vol. xvii., but I take them from J. A. S. B. xxix. 

p. 182) ; — 

December 26, 1825 March 29, 1826 

Dihong (after a correction) . (a) 56,000 ft. 

Brahmaputra at Sadiya . . \b) 19,058 ft. (fl) 33,965 ft. 

Dibong . . • • W 13,100 ft. 

Dihong and Dibong • • 69,664 ft. (a) 86,211 ft. 

Subanshiri, * in dry season * , (a) 16.000 ft. 

The close approximation in those marked (a) to Lieutenant Harman's 
recent measurements is remarkable ; whilst in (^) the discrepancy is 
great. All Lieut. Harman's measurements were taken in March. In 
some the rivers had risen, and the low level discharge was arrived at 
by calculation. But it is a pity that no notice is taken of the older 
measurements in the publication of the recent ones. The suggestion of 
the facts, on the surface, is that the recent observations do not represent 
the lowest level, or that the rivers in December 1825 were unusually 
low. 

* £claircissements Ciographiqties sur la Carte de Vlnde^ Paris, 



[74} GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

genius Julius Klaproth, who in demonstration played fast 
and loose on a great scale with latitudes and longitudes, and 
produced Chinese documents from the days of the T'ang 
dynasty to those of K'ang-hi in corroboration. His disser- 
tation in its latest form^ is, like almost everything that 
Klaproth wrote, of high interest. We need riot, as some 
other things in his career suggest, doubt the genuineness of 
the Chinese documents. Some of them at least are to be 
found translated in independent works before his time. But 
everything is not necessarily true that is written in Chinese, 
any more than everything that is written in Persian — or even 
in Pushtu ! Chinese writers have found leisure to speculate 
on geographical questions, as well as Europeans. And some 
of them, finding, on the one hand, the Tsanpu flowing 
through Tibet, and disappearing they knew not whither, and 
finding, on the other, the Irawadi coming down into Burma 
from the north, issuing they knew not whence, adopted a 
practice well known to geographers (to Ptolemy, be it said, 
face tanti viri^ not least) long before Dickens humorously 
attributed it to one of the characters in * Pickwick ' — they 
' combined the information,' and concluded that the Tsanpu 
and the Irawadi were one. Klaproth's view that this was so, 
and that the actual influx took place near Bhamb, was 
adopted by many Continental geographers, and staggered 
even the judicious Ritter. Maps were published in accord- 
ance with the theory, some bringing the waters of Tibet into 
the Irawadi by the Bhamb River (down which Captain Gill 
floated in Mr. Cooper's boat on the- last day's journey which 
he has recorded), and others through the Shwdi, which 
enters the Irawadi some eighty miles below Bhamb. 

§ 8. It seems hardly worth while now to slay this hypo- 
thesis, which was moribund before, but must be quite dead 
since the reports of General Walker's two last explorers in 
those regions. Its existence was somewhat prolonged, es- 
pecially in France, by the fact that some of the missionaries in 
Eastern Tibet, of whom we shall speak presently, had carried 
out with them elaborate maps, compiled under the influence 
of Klaproth's theory ; and the ideas derived from these had 

• Mimoires relatifs a PAste, vol. iii. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [75] 

so impregnated their minds that, in communicating geogra- 
phical information which they had collected on the scene of 
their labours, it was confused and tinged by the errors of 
Klaproth. 

The main bases for what we may st)'le the orthodox 
theory of the Irawadi are found in the constant belief of 
natives above and below the Tibetan passes, and in the evi- 
dence of direction and volume. The lamented Col. T. G. 
Montgomerie, in his most able analysis of the Pundit Nain 
Singh's first journey, deduced from the particulars recorded 
by the latter, and a careful oral catechisation, that the dis- 
charge of the Tsanpu, where crossed below Jigatze (or 
Jigarchi),- could hardly be less than 35,000 feet per second. 
We see that the discharge of the Dihong, on its emergence 
from the hills of Assam into the plains of Assam, is 55,400 
feet. These are in reasonable ratio. Now the discharge of 
the Irawadi, so far down as the head of the Delta, is not 
more than 75,000 feet, and at Amarapura it cannot, on the 
best data available, be much more than the 35,000 feet 
attributed to the Tsanpu on the table-land of Tibet, at a 
point which would be at least 1,200 miles above Ava along 
the banks, if the theory of identity were true.^ 

§ 9. The third river (iii.) is the Dibong, which joins the 
Dihong before its qonfluence with the Brahmaputra. This 
has, on Mr. Saunders's map of Tibet accompanying Mr. 
Markham's book, been identified with the Ken-pu, one of the 
rivers of Tibet delineated on D'Anville's map. The Ken- 
pu, however, we shall see strong evidence for identifying 
with a different river, whilst there is positive reason to believe 
that the Dibong, in spite of its large discharge, does not come 
from Tibet. At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal 
in 1861, at which I read a paper connected with this subject. 
Major (the late Major- General) Dalton stated that the people 
of Upper Assam admitted only two of their rivers to come 
from Tibet, viz. the Dihong and the (Lohita) Brahmaputra. 
An attempt was made in 1878 by Captain (now Lieut. - 

' See Appendix to Narrative of Mission to the Court of Ava (Major 
Phayre's), pp. 356 seq. ; and a paper by Major-General A. Cunninghan> 
in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of BengcU^ vol. xxix. pp. 175 seq. 



[76] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

Colonel) Woodthorpe, R.E., who has done much excellent 
work in the survey of the Eastern Frontier, to explore the 
sources of the Dibong. He was not successful in penetrating 
far up the river, but he considered himself to have derived, 
from extensive views, and native information in connection 
with them, * a fairly accurate knowledge of the sources of the 
Dibong, and the course of its main stream in the hills ; ' ^ and 
in the map representing this knowledge the river is indicated 
as having no source further north than about 28° 52'. 

§ 10. We next come to the (iv.) true Brahmaputra, or 
Lohit, which enters Assam at the Brahmakund, or Sacred 
Pool of Brahma. This I believe to be identical with the 
Gak-bo of the Tibetan geographies, and the Ken-pu, or 
Kang-pu, of D'Anville and the Chinese. 

Granted, as we may now assume, that the Tsanpu is the 
Dihong, the Ken-pu can hardly be other than either the 
Dibong or the Lohit. We have seen that the Dibong does 
not come from Tibet. But there is a very curious piece of 
evidence that the Ken-pu is the Lohit. 

I have just alluded to a paper connected with our present 
subject which was read at Calcutta in 1861. This was a 
letter from Monseigneur Thomine des Mazures, 'Vicar 
Apostolic of Tibet,' and then actually residing at Bonga in 
Eastern Tibet, to Bishop Bigandet of Rangoon (himself well 
known for his works on Burmese Buddhism, &c., and who 
had been very desirous to establish direct communication 
with his brethren in the north), and which contained some 
interesting geographical notices, though they were, as has 
been already indicated, impaired in value by the erroneous 
ideas as to the Tsanpu, gathered from Klaproth, with which 
French maps were then affected.^ The paper was read with 
a comment by the present writer.^ 

* Letter of Captain Woodthorpe, dated Shillong, August 10, 1878 
forwarded by the Government of India, in their letter of October 31, ia 

* Particularly the map, on which Bishop Thomine relied, of Andri" 
veau GoujoHf Paris, 1841. 

* See Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal^ vol. xxx. pp. 367 j^^. 
The Bishop's letter as sent to the Society had been done into English, 
and not always lucid English. In my present quotations I have 
corrected this. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, ln\ 

Now in this letter Bishop des Mazures spoke of the 
series of rivers in question, beginning with the Lant'sang, or 
Mekong, and travelHng westward. Next to the Lant'sang 
was the Lu-ts' Kiang (Lu-Kiang or Salwen). Beyond that 
the Ku-ts' Kiang, of which we shall speak presently, and 
then the Gak-bo Tsanpu^ * called by the Chinese Kan-pu- 
tsangboJ The Bishop, influenced by his Klaprothian map, 
stated this to join the Irawadi. And this would only have 
made confusion double but for a circumstance which he 
proceeded to mention. * In that district,' he wrote, * accord- 
ing to the Tibetans, is the village of Sam^, where our two 
priests, MM. Krick and Boury, were murdered.' Here was 
a fact that no theories could affect. These two gentlemen 
were, in the autumn of 1854, endeavouring to make their 
way to Tibet from Upper Assam, by the route up the Lohit, 
attempted fourteen years later by Mr. T. T. Cooper, when 
they were attacked and murdered by a Mishmi chief called 
Kaiisa. On the receipt of this intelligence, and after a 
detailed account of the circumstances had been obtained 
from the servant of the priests, a party was despatched by 
the British authorities of Assam into the Mishmi country to 
capture the criminal chief This was very dexterously and 
successfully effected by Lieutenant Eden, who was in com- 
mand. In the beginning of March, Kaiisa and some of his 
party were taken, and were tried and convicted by Major 
Dalton. Dr. Carew, the Roman Catholic Archbishop, inter- 
ceded with the Governor-General for a mitigation. But 
Kaiisa was hanged. It is an old story, but so creditable to 
several concerned that it has seemed well worth being briefly 
told here. 

Now the place at which these two travellers were 
murdered was SimS^ on the banks of the (Lohit) Brahma- 
putra^ a place entered from native information in Wilcox's 
map some thirty years before, and some fifteen or sixteen 
miles above the place where Cooper was turned back in 
1869. 

I can hardly conceive of better evidence than this re- 
garding a country unexplored by European travellers, and I 
have repeatedly adduced it in proof that the Gak-bo or 



[78] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

Ken-pu is identical with the Lohit, and that the latter comes 
from Tibet. This, too, being established, there remains no 
possibility of communication between the Tsanpu and 
the Irawadi, unless the Tsanpu pass athwart the basin of 
the Brahmaputra^ 

Thus, singular to say, from the blood of those two 
missionary priests, spilt on the banks of the Lohita (the 

* Blood-red '), is moulded the one firm Hnk that we as yet 
possess, binding together the Indian and the Chinese geo- 
graphy of those obscure regions. And once more has this 
Sim^, Same, or Sama on the Lohit, become an important 
point in reference to the same subject, as we have seen in 
the notice of the last native explorations at p. [72]. 

§ II. (v.) In the Chinese maps, and in Bishop 
Thomine des Mazures' list of rivers, there comes next a river 
variously called Tchitom (D'Anville), Tchod-teng, or Scheie 
(Des Mazures)-Chu, all probably variations of the same 
name, and also Ku-ts^ Kiang (Des Mazures), and in Klap- 
roth's map the Khiu-shi-Ho. This river, which he calls 

* rather inconsiderable,' the Bishop identifies with the Lung- 
Kiang or Lung-ch'wan Kiang of the Chinese, or Shw^-li of 
the Burmese, which flows a little east of Momien (called by 
the Chinese Teng-yueh-chau), and which eventually joins 
the Irawadi 80 or 90 miles below Bhamb. The Shw^-li 
does, according to Captain Gill's report, appear to bring 
down when in flood a vast body of water, ^ but it has not 
been seen by any European north of where he crossed it. 
Dr. Anderson, however, who accompanied Major Sladen's ex- 
pedition, states that he was positively informed that its sources 
were only 40 or 50 miles north-east of Momien.^ Bishop 
T. des Mazures, in his identification of the Schet^ or Ku-ts' 
with the Shw^-li, was perhaps again unduly biassed by maps 

' The only possible doubt is that of the identity of the Gak-bo and 
the Ken-pu or Kang-pu, but I think there is no room for this. It is 
asserted by Bishop des Mazures, and a comparison of the course of the 
Ken-pou of D' Anville's map with the Kakbo Dzanhotsiou of the Chinese 
map given by Klaproth in his edition of the Description du Tiibet, 
entirely corroborates this. 

* See the River of Golden Sand^ vol. ii. p. 357 ; infra^ p. 276. 

• Report on Expedition to Western Yunan, Calcutta, 1 87 1, p. 188. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [79] 

founded on Klaproth's theories, and thus we cannot feel 
confidence that his statement on this point was derived from 
native information. Chinese geographical speculators have 
identified more than one river of Tibet with the Shwe-li, 
some of them supposing it to be the same with the Gak-bo 
or Ken-pu.* I have long been inclined to the belief that the 
Ku-ts* Kiang of the Bishop, the Tchitom-chu of D'Anville, 
represents the unseen eastern source of the Irawadi, which 
has been the subject of so much controversy. Dr. Ander- 
son's Shan informants gave the unvisited eastern branch of 
the Irawadi the name of Kew (Kiu) Hom^ a name possibly 
identical both with the Khiu-shi of Klaproth and with the 
Ku-ts' of Bishop Thomine des Mazures. In any case, 
judging from D'Anville s map, the be'kt authority we as yet 
have, the sources of this river, and therefore under my pre- 
sent hypothesis the remotest sources of the Irawadi, will 
not lie further north than 30° at the most. If so, the ex- 
treme length of the Irawadi 's course will still fall far short 
of that assigned to the Lu-Kiang, or Salwen, and to the 
I-ant'sang, or Mekong, to say nothing of our * River of 
Golden Sand.' And this will be consistent enough with the 
calculations regarding the discharge of the Irawadi, which 
will be found in the places quoted at p. [73] above. 

§ 12. (vi.) The Lung-Ch'uan Kiang, Lung-Ch'iang of 
Captain Gill, and Shw^-li of the Burmese. Of this we have 
spoken under No. v. 

The next of the parallel rivers (vii.) is the Lu-Kiang or 
Nu- Kiang of Chinese maps, the Lu-ts' Kiang of Bishop des 
Mazures, the Salwen of Burma, under which name it enters 
the Gulf of Martaban. Rennell thought that the Nou-Kian 
(or Lu-Kiang) of the Jesuit maps must be the upper Ira- 
wadi. And since then doubts have been thrown on the 
identity of the Salwen and the Lu-Kiang of Tibetan geo- 
graphy, by myself many years ago, and more recently by Dr. 
Anderson ; but I am satisfied that the evidence had not 
been duly considered. The chief ground for discrediting 
its length of course and its Tibetan origin was its compara- 
tively small body of water as reported This may, however, 

> See Ritter, iv. 225. 
e 



[8o] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

be due mainly to a restricted basin — and as far as we know 
the river from Yun-nan downwards, the basin is very re- 
stricted ; — but also we see, not only how various the rela- 
tions between the length and the discharge of considerable 
rivers may be, but how deceptive, as in the case of the 
Subanshiri, comparative impressions of discharge are apt to 
be, in the absence of measurements. The French mission- 
aries who were for some years stationed near the Lu-Kiang, 
about lat 28° 20,' speak of it as a great river. Abb^ Du- 
rand, June 1863, describing a society of heretical lamas who 
had invited his instructions, and who were willing to consign 
the paraphernalia of their worship to the waters, writes, 
' What will become of it all ? The Great River, whose 
waves roll to Martaban, is not more than 200 or 300 paces 
distant.'^ ... A river so spoken of in lat. 28° 20', or there- 
abouts, may easily have come from a remote Tibetan source. 
It is hard to say more as yet, amid the uncertainties of 
the geography of Tibetan steppes, and the difficulty of dis- 
cerning between the tributaries of this river and that of the 
next ; but the Lu-Kiang, or a main branch of it, under the 
name of Suk-chu, appears to be crossed by a bridge on the 
high road between Ssu-Ch'uan and Lhassa,^ four stations 
west of Tsiamdo on the Lant'sang. 

§ 13. (viii.) The Lant'sang, or Mekong, the great river 
of Camboja, which rivals the Yang-Tzii itself in length, has 
its sources far north in Tibet, but attended with the un- 
certainties that we have spoken of under No. vii. Its lower 
course has long been known in a general way, but only ac- 
curately since the French expedition, from its mouth up 
into Yun-nan, in 1866-67. The town of Tsiamdo, capital 
of the province of Kham, which stands between the two 
main branches that form the Mekong, in about lat. 30° 45', 
was visited by Hue and Gabet, on their return under arrest 
from Lhassa ; but whatever quasi-geographical particulars 
Hue gives seem to have been taken, after the manner of 

* Ann* de la Prop, de la Foi, torn, xxxvii. 

« See Description du Tiihet^ translated by Klaproth, p. 222, and com- 
pare Ritter iv. 252, and 225-6 ; also Hue, ii. 445. The bridge is his 
Kia-Yu-Kiao, and had fallen just before his arrival. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [8i] 

travellers of his sort, from the Chinese itineraries published 
in Klaproth's * Description du Tiibet.' Kiepert, in his 
great map of Asia of 1864, had apparently so Httle faith in 
Hue's statements of this kind, that he makes the two branch 
rivers of Tsiamdo, after their union, form the source of the 
(Lohit) Brahmaputra. This was a somewhat wild idea even 
then ; but now, when Tsiamdo has been visited by later 
missionaries (as by Bishop des Mazures and Abb^ Desgodins 
in 1866^), travelling from and returning to the Chinese 
frontier, and following at no great distance the course of the 
Lan-t'sang, there can hardly be a reasonable doubt as to 
the course of this river as far north as Tsiamdo ; and this 
is shown roughly in M. Desgodins* map. 

§ 14. (ix.) The Kin-sha (or Chin-Sha), * Golden Sand,' 
is that which gave a title to Captain GilFs book, a title 
justified by the fact that he followed its banks, with occa- 
sional deviations, during four-and-twenty marches on his 
way from Bat'ang to Ta-Li-Fu. This river is probably the 
greatest in Asia, as it is certainly the longest,* and one of the 
most famous ; but it would be excelled even in length were 
the Klaprothian view of the identity of the Tsanpu and the 
Irawadi correct ; and far excelled by the Hoang-Ho, if we 
could view that river with the eyes of a puzzle-headed 
ecclesiastical traveller of the middle ages, who traversed all 
Asia, from Astrakhan to Peking, and who seems to have 
regarded as one river, which was constantly * turning up ' on 
his route (and that identical with the Phison of Paradise), the 
Volga, the Oxus, the Hoang-Ho and the Yang-Tzu. Well 
might he say with pride : * I believe Jit to be the biggest 
river of fresh water in the world, and I have crossed it 
myself ! ' ^ 

The sources of the Kin-sha are really, according to the 
best of our knowledge, in or about long. 90°, ue, almost as 

* Desgodins, La Mission du Thibet^ pp. 80-83. The missionaries 
call the place Tcha-mou-to, 

* In length the order of the rivers of the world seems to be given : 
(i) Mississippi (including Missouri), (2) Nile, (3) Amazon, (4) Yangtsze 
Kiang (or Kin-Sha-K.), (5) Yenesei. But probably the Congo ought, 
as now known, to take a high place in this list. 

* John MarignolU, in Cathay^ &c. p. 350. 

e 2 



[82] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

far west as Calcutta. Its upper course, though far below 
the source, was crossed by Hue and Gabet in the winter of 
1845 ; and reached, though not crossed, by Colonel Prejev- 
alsky in January 1873, about long. 90° 40', lat 35° 50'. Hue 
crossed the river on the ice, and says nothing of dimensions, 
though he leaves on our memories that famous picture of 
the frozen herd of yaks. But from Prejevalsky we have in- 
formation as to the great size of the river even in this remote 
portion of its course : the channel, when seen, 750 feet 
wide, and flowing with a rapid current, but the whole river- 
bed from bank to bank upwards of a mile wide, and, in the 
summer floods, entirely covered to the banks, and some- 
times beyond.^ It must have been in this flooded state that 
it was crossed by a Dutch traveller, Samuel Van de Putte 
(who has left singularly little trace of his extraordinary 
journeys), some time about the year 1730.® 

The name given to the river in this part of its course is 
(Mong.) Murui'Ussu, or Murus-ussu^ the * Winding Water,* 
and (Tib.) Di-chu^ or Bhri-chu, the * River of the (tame) 
Yak-Cow,' ^ from one or other of which Marco Polo seems 
to have taken the name Brius which he gives to the river in 
Yun-nan. 

In leaving the steppes, and approaching the jurisdiction 
of the Chinese, it seems to receive from them the name of 
Kin-sha Kiang, and this name is applied, at least as far as 
Swi-fu, where it is joined by the Min River coming down 
from Ssii-Ch'uan. Here the Great River becomes navigable 
to the sea, though the navigation is impeded, as Captain 
Gill's narrative forcibly depicts, by numerous rapids and 
gorges hard to pass.^ 

^ Prejevalsky J ii. 221. 

" * After traversing this country one reaches a very large river called 
Bi-chu, which, as Signor Samuel Van der, a native of Fleshinghe, in the 
province of Zeland, in Holland, has written of it, is so lai^e that to 
cross it in boats of skins he embarked in the morning, and landed on an 
island in the evening, and could not complete the passage across till the 
middle of the following day.* — P. Horace della Penna^ in Appendix to 
Markham's Tibet, p. 312. 

• These are Klaproth's interpretations, in his notes to Horace deVa 
Penna, See also Prejevalsky, u.s. 

* Geographical names are largely names given, or at least defined in 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [83J 

Of all the Tibetan and Yun-nan part of the river, ex- 
cepting in D'Anville's maps, of which the value in this part 
has always been a little doubtful, we have had, previous 
to Captain Gill's journey, nothing of actual survey ; of still 
more recent correction of our knowledge we shall speak 
below. 

§ 15. The next great river (x.) belonging to this series 
is the Ya-Lung Kiang of the Chinese, a corruption of the 
Tibetan Jar-lung, or Yar-lung.^ It rises in the mountains 
called Baian-Kara, on the south of the Koko-nur basin, 
about lat. 34°, and flows with a course generally southerly, 
and parallel to the Kin-sha, till it joins that river in the 
middle of its great southerly elbow, about lat. 26° 30'. In 
its upper course it is called, according to Klaproth's 
authority, Gnia-mtso, which seems to be the same as the Nia- 
chu of Captain Gill (ii. 135). The Jar-lung valley was the 
traditional cradle of the Tibetan monarchy,^ which only at a 
later time moved into the western highlands of Lhassa. The 
river was passed, some 260 miles north of the mouth, by 
Captain Gill on his way from Ta-Chien-Lu to Lit'ang, by a 
coracle ferry (ii. 139 ; infra, p. 197) ; near this the width 
varied from 50 to 120 yards, with a rapid broken current. 
Baggage animals had to be swum across. 

The confluence of the two great rivers Yar-lung and Kin- 
sha was visited by Lieutenant Gamier and his party in 1868. 
Gamier thus describes the junction : — 

The Kin-sha is here by no means shut in as it is at Mong- 
kou — (where they had crossed the eastern limb of the great 

their application, by geographers, and one should always speak 
cautiously as to how a river or mountain-chain in Asia is called by 
natives on the spot. Blakiston, at the furthest point of the river ascended 
by him, found it only known as the * River of Yun-nan. * So streams are, 
or used to be, locally known in Scotland only as * the watter,* or perhaps 
the * watter of — * such a place. In one part, Captain Gill tells, the 
great river is known as *■ the River pf Dregs and Lees. ' 

' Ritter gives the meaning of this as * White River * (iv. 190) ; 
Klaproth as * Vas»e Riviere * {Description du Tiibet, 190). The Tibetan 
vocabulary in Klaproth gives ghiar^ ' ample, vaste * (p. 145). dAar, 
* white,* is perhaps the word ; and it will be seen that in its lower course 
the Chinese do call it Pe-shui, or * White Water.* 

• See Sanang Setzen in Schmidt's Ost-MongoleMf p. 23 and passim. 



[84] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

bend) ; — and it is reached by a hardly sensible declivity. Little 
naked hills line the banks. The river comes from the south- 
west, then describes a curve inclining to io° south of east ; and 
it is at the apex of this curve that it receives the Ya-long Kiang. 
The latter arrives from the north, shut in closely by two walls 
of rock absolutely perpendicular, so that no passage along the 
banks is possible. Its breadth is nearly equal to that of the 
Blue River ; ♦ and its current, at least when we saw it, was 
somewhat stronger. I could not measure the depth of either, 
but it seemed considerable. As at Mong-kou the flood-rise was 
lo metres. I was surprised to learn that the country people 
here gave the name of Kin-sha Kiang to the Ya-long — i.e. to 
the tributary — and that of Pe-shui Kiang, * White-Water River,' 
to the principal stream. If, as regards volume, there was, at 
first sight, some room for doubt between the two, the aspect of 
the two valleys showed at once which was entitled to keep the 
name of Kin-sha Kiang. The mouth of the Ya-long is a sort 
of accidental gap in the chain of hills that lines the Blue River, 
and the orographic configuration of the country indicates clearly 
that the latter river comes from the west and not from the north. 
. . . This anomaly in their nomenclature will seem less surpris- 
ing if we remember that in China river-names are always local, 
and change every 60 miles. About Li-kiang you again find that 
the Kin-sha has got its proper name, and it is the Ya-long that 
is there called Pe-shui Kiang. ^ 

§ 16. The last of these great parallel rivers with which 
we have to deal is that great branch (xi.), called on our maps 
Wen and Min Kiang, which we regard geographically as a 
tributary of the Kin-sha or Yang-Tzti, but which the Chinese 
hydrographers have been accustomed to regard rather as 
the principal stream. We find this view distinctly indicated 
in that oldest of Chinese documents, the Yii-Kung.^ It 
comes out again prominently in Marco Polo's account of Sin- 
da-fu (or Ch'eng-Tu-Fu), which is quoted by Captain Gill at 
thebeginningofhissecondvolume(/«/V^, p. 141). . . . *The 

* So the French term the Yang-Tzii. 

* Voyage <V Exploration^ i. 503. Gamier gives a view of the con- 
fluence. 

" See Richthofen's China^ i. 325 : * On the Min-shan begins the 
course of the Kiang. Branching eastward it forms the To .... &c.* 
The Min-shan is the mountain country north-west of Ssu-Ch'uan. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [85] 

name of the river is Kiansuy\^ />., as the late M. Pauthier 
explains, Kiang-Shui, * Waters of the Kiang * (or River 
Kiang, see He-Shui^ a little below). The same view api)ears 
in Padre Martini*s * Atlas Sinensis' (1655) ; ^ and very dis- 
tinctly in a paper professedly (and probably in reality) in- 
dited in 1721 by the great Emperor K*ang-hi, which Klap- 
roth has translated in that dissertation of his already spoken 
of regarding the course of the river of I'ibet : — 

From my youth up (says the Emperor), I have been greatly 
interested in geography ; and for such purposes I sent officers 
to the Kuen-Luen mountains, and into Si-fan. All the great 
rivers, such as the Great Kiang, the Hwang- Ho (Yellow River), 
the He-Shui (Black River, the Kara-Ussu of the Mongols), the 
Kin-Sha Kiang, and the Lan-t'sang Kiang, have their sources 
in those regions. My emissaries examined everything with 
their own eyes ; they made accurate inquiries, and have em- 
bodied their observations in a map. From this it is clear that 
all the great rivers of China issue from south-eastern slopes of 
the great chain of Nom-Khdn-ubashi^ which separates the in- 
terior from the exterior system of waters. The Hwang-Ho has 
its source beyond the frontier of Sining, on the east of the 
Kulkun mountains. . . . The M in- Kiang has its origin to the 
west of the Hwang-Ho, on the mountains of Baian-Kara-tsit- 
sir-khana, which is called in Tibetan Afiniak-t/tsuo, and in the 
Chinese books Min-Shan \ it is outside of the western frontier 
of China; the waters of the Kiang issue from it. . . . According 
to the Yii-Kung the Kiang comes from the Min-Shan. This is 
not correct ; it only passes through that range ; this is ascer- 
tained. This river runs to Kuon-hien,^ and there divides into 
half a score of branches, which reunite again on reaching Sin- 
tsin-hien ; thence it fldws south-east to Sii-chau-fu [or Swi-Fu] 
where it joins the Kin-sha Kiang. » 

Captain Gill, so far as we are aware, was the first 
traveller to trace this river above Ch'eng-Tu, to the alpine 
highlands, doubtless the Min-Shan of the Yii-Kung, from 
which it emerges. This he did on that excursion from 

' To this remarkable work I tried to do some justice in an article in 
the Geographical Magazine iox 1874, pp. 147-8. 

• The Kuan-hsien of Captain Gill, vol. i. p. 330; infra^ p. 107. 

• Klaproth, MSmoires relatifs h PAsie^ iii. 392. 



[86] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

Ch'eng-Tu to the north, in the months of May and June, 
1877, which is described in the last two chapters of the first 
volume, entitled, * A Loop-cast towards the Northern Alps/ 
§ 17. Captain Gill has pointed out that, of the many 
branches of the river which ramify through the plain of 
Ch'eng-Tu, no one now passes through the city at all corre- 
sponding in magnitude to that which Marco Polo describes, 
about 1283, as running through the midst of Sindafu, *a 
good half-mile wide, and very deep withal' The largest 
branch adjoining the city now runs on the south side, but 
does not exceed a hundred yards in width ; and though it 
is crossed by a covered bridge with huxters' booths, more or 
less in the style described by Polo, it necessarily falls far 
short of his great bridge of half a mile in length. Captain 
Gill suggests that a change may have taken place in the 
last five (this should be six) centuries, owing to the deepen- 
ing of the river-bed at its exit from the plain, and consequent 
draining of the latter. But I should think it more probable that 
the ramification of channels round Ch'eng-Tu, which is so 
conspicuous even on a small general map of China, like 
that which accompanies this work, is in great part due to 
art ; that the mass of the river has been drawn off to irrigate 
the plain ; and that thus the wide river, which in the thir- 
teenth century may have passed through the city, no 
unworthy representative of the mighty Kiang, has long since 
ceased, on that scale, to flow. And I have pointed out briefly 
(ii. 6 ; infra^ p. 144) that the fact, which Baron Richthofen 
attests, of an actual bifurcation of waters on a large scale taking 
place in the plain of Ch'eng-Tu — one arm ' branching east 
to form the To ' — (as in the terse indication of the Yii-Kung) 
viz. the To- Kiang or Chung- Kiang flowing south-east to 
join the great river at Lu-Chau, whilst another flows south 
to Sii-chau or Swi-Fu, does render change in the distribution 
of the waters about the city highly credible.^ 

* A short but interesting notice of the irrigatioii and drainage of the 
plain of Ch'eng-Tu is given by Richthofen in his seventh letter to the 
Shanghai Chambers, p. 64. He mentions that the existing channels, 
though not those close to the city, reach in some instances to a width 
of 1,000 feet. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [87] 

The various branches, except those that diverge, as just 
said, to the Ch'ung-Kiang, reunite above Hsin-Chin-Hsien 
(Sin-tsin-hien of Richthofen, Sing-chin of the general map), 
which was Captain Gill's second station in leaving Ch'eng-Tu 
for Tibet Up to this point the main stream of the Min is 
navigable, whilst boats also ascend the easternmost branch 
to the capital. Indeed, vessels with 100 tons of freight 
reach Ch'eng-Tu by this channel when the river is high.^ At 
Kia-ting-fu the Min receives a large river from the moun- 
tains on the west, the Tung-Ho, which brings with it both the 
waters of the Ya-Ho, from Ya-Chou (see voL ii. p. 47 ; //r/ra, 
p. 159), and those ot the river of Ta-Chien-Lu. Kia-ting is an 
important trading place, the centre of the produce in silk and 
white-wax, and situated in a lovely and fertile country. Below 
this the Min-Kiang is a fine, broad, and deep stream, with a 
swift but regular current,^ and obstructed by only one rapid, 
at Kien-wei, but that a dangerous one. It joins the Kin-sha, 
as so often mentioned, at Sii-Chau or Swi-Fu. 

§ 18. We have spoken, perhaps at too great length, of 
the great parallel rivers which form the most striking physical 
characteristic of the region between India and China. Let 
us now say something of the history of a problem that 
many attempts have been made to solve : that of opening 
direct communication between these two great countries. 

How difficult a problem this is will be, perhaps, most 
forcibly expressed by the circumstance that in all the com- 
plex history of Asiatic conquest — and in spite of the fact 
that you can hardly lay your finger on an ordinary atlas-map 
of Asia without covering a spot that has at one time or 
other been the focus of a power whose conquests have 
spread far and wide over that continent — at no time did a 
conqueror from India ever pass to China, nor (unless with 
one obscure and transient exception, which will be noticed 
below) a conqueror from China to India, nor at any time, 
omitting the brief passage of Chinghiz, who barely touched 

* Richthofen, p. 71. 

■ Cooper says, * often a mile wide ; ' but the river was unusually 
high, for it was, he says, * unbroken by a single rapid.' Richthofea 
specifies the frequent wrecks in the rapid at Kien-wei. 



[88] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

the Punjab, did the conquests of any conqueror embrace 
any part of both countries. 

Moreover, Chinese history seems to estabHsh the fact 
that India first became known to China, not across these 
lofty highlands and the vast fissures in which the rivers flow 
^of which we have spoken, but by the huge circuit of Bactria 
and Kabul. The idea that there was a more ancient inter- 
course between the two great countries, and that the Chinas 
of the Laws of Menu and of the Mahabharat were Chinese, 
must, I now believe, be abandoned. The Chinas^ as Vivien 
de St. Martin and Sir H. Rawlinson have indicated, are rather 
to be regarded as a hill-race of the Himalaya, probably identi- 
cal with the Shinas of Dardistan. The first report of India 
was brought to China in the year B.C. 127, in the reign of 
Hsia-wu-ti of the Han dynasty, when Chang- Kien, a military 
leader who had been exploring the country about the Oxus, 
returned after an absence of twelve years, and, among many 
other notices of Western Asia, reported of a land called 
Shin-Tu—i.e. Sindu, Hindu, India — of which he had heard 
in Tahia, or Bactria, a land lying to the south-east, moist 
and flat and very hot, the people civilised, and accustomed 
to train elephants. From its position, and from the fact 
that stuffs of Shu {i,e, Ssii-Ch'uan, see vol. ii. pp. 17, 35) 
arrived in the bazaars of Bactria through Shin-Tu, Chang- 
Kien deduced that this country must lie not far from 
the western provinces of China. Several efforts were in 
consequence made to penetrate by the Ssu-Ch'uan frontier 
to India ; one got as far as Tien (now a part of Yun-nan), but 
others not even so far. The King of Tien stopped the 
envoys of the Han, and would not allow them to explore 
the routes by which India was reached. When communica- 
tion opened with India some 200 years later, it was by the 
circuitous route of Bactria, and so it continued for centuries. 

§ 19. If the acute general of the Han was right about 
the stuffs of Shu, the trade that brought these stuffs must 
have been of an obscure hand-to-hand kind, probably 
through Tibet, analogous in character to the trade which 
in prehistoric Europe brought amber, tin, or jade from vast 
distances. But it is curious to set alongside of these 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [89] 

Chinese notices of obscure trade reaching to India that 
remarkable passage in the * Periplus,' a work of the first 
century a.d., which speaks of Thin, and of its great city 
Thinae, * from which raw silk, and silk thread, and silk stuffs 
were brought overland through Bactria to Barygaza (Bhroch), 
as they were on the other hand by the Ganges River to Limy- 
rike ' {Dimyrike, the Tamul country, Malabar). Ptolemy, 
too, a century later, says that there was not only a road from 
the countries of the Seres and of the Sinae to Bactriana by 
the Stone Tower (i,e, by Kashgar and Pamir), but also a 
road to India which came through Palibothra (or Patna). It 
is probable that this traffic was still only of that second- and 
third-hand kind of which we have spoken, and the mention 
of Palibothra recalls the fact that Patna is the Indian 
terminus at which the Fathers Grueber and D'Orville arrived 
after their unique journey from Northern China by Tibet. 

Returning to the * Periplus,' the passage that we have 
referred to is followed by another speaking of a rude mon- 
goloid people (it is the shortest abridgment of the descrip- 
tion) who frequented the frontier of Thin, bringing mala- 
bathrum or cassia leaves. These, I think, may undoubtedly 
be regarded as some one or other of the hill tribes on the 
Assam frontier, and I should in this case regard the mention 
of Thin as vaguely indicating the knowledge, as already 
popular in India, that there was a great land bearing a name 
like that beyond the vast barrier of mountains. In a like 
way we find the name of Mahachin applied in the fifteenth 
century by Nicolo Conti, and in the sixteenth century by 
Abu'1-Fazl, to the countries on the Irawadi ; and I remem- 
ber, many years ago, seeing a Tibetan pilgrim at Hardwdr, 
whose only intelligible indication of where he came from was 
* Mahdchin.' 

§ 20. As our subject is the history not of communica- 
tion generally between China and India, but only of that 
communication across their common highland barrier, we 
are bound, so far as our knowledge goes, to stride at once 
from pseudo-Arrian to Marco Polo. There is in the inter- 
val, indeed, an obscure record of a Chinese invasion of India, 
which should perhaps constitute an exception 



[9o] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

In 641, the King of Magadha (Behar, &c) sent an 
ambassador with a letter to the Chinese court. The 
Emperor, who was then Tai-tsung of the T'ang dynasty, 
probably the greatest monarch in Chinese history, in return 
sent one of his officers to go to the King with an imperial 
patent, and to invite his submission. The King Shiloyto 
(Siladitya) * was all astonishment. * Since time immemorial,' 
he asked his courtiers, * did ever an ambassador come from 
Mahachina ? ' * Never,' they replied. The Chinese author re- 
marks here, that in the tongue of the barbarians, the Middle 
Kingdom is called * Mohochintan ' {Mahdchinasthdnd), 
A further exchange of civilities continued for some years. 
But the usurping successor of Siladitya did not maintain 
these amicable relations, and war ensued, in the course of 
which the Chinese, assisted by the kings of Tibet and Nepal, 
invaded India. Other Indian kings lent aid and sent sup- 
plies ; and after the capture of the usurper Alanashan (?), 
and the defeat of the army commanded by his queen on the 
banks of the Khien-to-wei^ 580 cities surrendered to the arms 
of China, and the king himself was carried prisoner to that 
country. 

Chinese annals colour things, but they are not given to 
invention, and one can hardly reject this story.* It is 
probable, however, even from the story as it is told, that this 

* This Siladitya is a king of whom much mention is made in the 
Memoirs of Hwen-T'sang. He was a devout Buddhist, and a great 
conqueror, having his capital at Kanauj, and a dominion extending 
over the whole of the present Bengal Presidency, from the sea to the 
frontier of Kashmir. 

* The account is found in Stanis. Julien's pape:s from Mat-wan- 
lin, in the Jour, Asiat, ser. iv. tom. x. See also Cathay y and the Way 
1 hither y p. Ixviii., and Richthofen's China, pp. 523 536-7. It is 
stated that Wang-hwen-tse, the envoy who went on the mission that 
resulted in this war, wrote a history of all the transactions in twelve 
books, but it is unfortunately lost. The Life of Hwen T'sang states 
that that worthy, when in India, prophesied that, after the death of 
Siladitya, India would be a prey to dreadful calamities, and that per- 
verse men would stir up a desperate war. The same work mentions as 
the fulfilment that Siladitya died towards the end of the period Yung- 
hwei (A.D. 650-655), and that in conformity with the prediction, India 
* became a prey to the horrors of famine,' of which the envoy Wang- 
hwen-tse, just mentioned, was an eye-witness. But no mention is made 
of the Chinese invasion. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [91] 

was rather a Nepalese and Tibetan invasion, promoted and 
perhaps led by Chinese, than a Chinese invasion of India. 
Lassen, as far as I can discover, does not deal with the sub- 
ject at all. The name of the river on which the Indian 
defeat took place, Khien-to-wet, would according to the 
usual system of metamorphosis represent Gandhava \ qu. 
the Gandhak ? (Sansk Gandakavati), 

§ 21. The story, told by Firishta and others, of an inva- 
sion of Bengal by the Mongols, *by way of Cathay and 
Tibet,' during the reign of 'Ala-ud-din Musa'iid, King of 
Delhi (a.d. 1244), has been shown by my friend Mr. Edward 
Thomas to have arisen out of a clerical error in MSS. of 
the contemporary history called Tabakdt-UNdsin,^ But two 
preposterous attempts were made in the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries, at the counter-project, the invasion of the 
countries above the Himdlaya from Gangetic India. 

The first of these (a.d. 1204) was the adventure of Ma- 
hommed Bakhtiyar Khilji, the first Mussulman conqueror of 
Bengal, and ruler of Gaur, of whom the historian just quoted 
says, that * the ambition of seizing the country of Turkestan 
and Tibet began to torment his brain.' The route taken is 
very obscure ; the older interpretations carried it up into 
Assam, but Major Raverty's conclusion that it ascended the 
Tista valley is perhaps preferable. The Khilji leader is 
stated to have reached the open country of Tibet, a tract 
entirely under cultivation, and garnished with tribes of peo- 
ple and populous villages. The strenuous resistance met 
with, the loss in battle with the natives, and the distress of 
the troops from such a march, compelled a retreat ; they 
were sorely harassed by the men of the Raja of Kamrud 
(apparently KdmHip^ of which Assam was the heart), and 
Mahommed Bakhtiydr finally escaped with but a hundred 
horsemen or thereabouts, and soon after fell ill and died. 

The second attempt was one of the insane projects of 
Mahommed Tughlak, which took place in 1337. It was, 
according to Firishta, directed against China, but it must 
be said that there is no mention of China as the object in 

• See Thomas's Pathdn Kings of Dehli^ p. 121. 



[92] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

the earlier accounts. The account given by the historian 
Zid-ud-din Barni, who wrote in the next generation, is as 
follows : — 

The sixth project, which inflicted a heavy loss upon the 
army, was the design which he formed of capturing the moun- 
tain of Kardjal. His conception was that, as he had under- 
taken the conquest of Khurdsdn, he would (first) bring under 
the dominion of Islam this mountain, which lies between the 
territories of Hind and those of China, so that the passage for 
horses and soldiers, and the march of the army, might be ren- 
dered easy. To effect this, a large force, under distinguished 
amirs and generals, was sent to the mountains of Kardjal, with 
orders to subdue the whole mountain. In obedience to orders 
it marched into the mountains, and encamped in various places ; 
but the Hindus closed the passes, and cut off its retreat. The 
whole force was thus destroyed at one stroke, and out of all 
this chosen body of men only ten horsemen returned to Dehli 
to spread the news of its discomfiture.'' 

The account given by the traveller Ibn Batuta, who was 
then at the court of Mahommed Tughlak, is to the same 
effect ; and though he mentions the names of two places 
that were taken by the troops, Jidiya before entering the 
mountains, and Warangal in the hill-country, Ibn Batuta 
does not aid us by these (the last of which is altogether 
anomalous) in fixing the locahty, any more than he helps us 
to understand the object, of the enterprise. 

§ 22. Coming now to Marco Polo, whose steps it would 
be hard for any traveller in a little-known region of Asia 
altogether to avoid, we may briefly say that on the first 
important mission to which he was designated by the Great 
Khan Kublai, in making his way to the frontier of Burma 
{Mien\ he travellejd from Ch'eng-Tu {Srndafu\ by the route 
which Captain Gill followed, as far probably as Ch'ing-Chi- 
Hsien. This was Captain Gill's ninth march from Ch'eng-Tu. 
We do not know the length of Marco's daily journeys, but 
after five such from Ch'eng-Tu, he was already in Tibet 
Probably the country which was counted as Tibet, in those 
days, began immediately on passing Ya-Chou and entering 

^ Elliot's History of Ifidia^ &c, (by Dowson), iii. 241-2. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [93] 

the mountains. From Ch'ing-Chi-Hsien the routes diverge. 
Captain Gill, bound for Ta-Chien-Lu and Bat'ang, strikes 
north-west ; Marco Polo's route continued to bear south- 
south-east, towards the city of Ning-Yuan-Fu, the existing 
capital of the beautiful valley of Kien-Chang, the Caindu or 
Ghiendu of the Venetian. This is the route on which Baron 
Richthofen's journey met with an unfortunate interruption 
(see p. [112]), and which has since been travelled by Mr. 
Baber. It is the road by which the greater part of the goods 
for Bhamo and Ava used to travel from Ch'eng-Tu, before 
the Mahommedan troubles in Western Yun-nan. Those 
goods went on by a direct road from Kien-Chang to Ta-Li-Fu. 
But Marco Polo's road led him south, and across the great 
elbow of the Kin-sha to thfe city of Yun-Nan Fu (his Yacht), 
From this he travelled to Ta-Li-Fu {Caraj'an), and thence to 
Yung-Chang- Fu ( Vochan or Unchari). Beyond this there are 
difficulties as to the exact extent and direction of his travels, 
concerning which some discussion occurs in vol. ii. chap, 
viii. of Captain Gill's book, as well as in my own com- 
mentary on the book of Marco. It would hardly profit to 
enter here on a detailed recapitulation of a discussion which 
as yet has confessedly received no satisfactory determination. 
§ 23. Ta-I J-Fu, which is so often spoken of in these pages, 
and is so prominent a point in Captain Gill's narrative, is 
indeed a focal point on this frontier at which many routes 
converge ; and for ages it has been the base of all operations, 
military or commercial, from the side of China towards 
Burma. It may still be regarded as the capital of Western 
Yun-nan, as it was in the days of Marco Polo. Ta-Li-Fu, for 
some centuries before Kublai Khan, the master whom Marco 
served, conquered it (a.d. 1253), had been the seat of a 
considerable Shan kingdom, called by the Chinese Nan (or 
Southern)- Chao : this latter term being a Shan word for 
* prince,' which still figures among the titles of the kings of 
Siam, and of all the other states of that wide-spread race. 
During the recent brief independence of the Mahommedans 
or Panthks (probably themselves as much Shan as Chinese 
in 'blood), Ta-Li again became a seat of royalty, and here 
reigned Tu-wen-hsiu, alias Sultan Suliman, from about i860 



[94] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

to 1873, when the city was captured by the Imperialists, and 
the Mahommedans were massacred. The king himself took 
poison, but his head was sent in honey to Peking.® 

Mr. Baber, quoted at p. 303 of vol. ii. {infra, p. 251), says 
that the terms Sultan and Sultvian were quite unknown on the 
spot. The fact is that in Indo-Chinese countries Islam has 
never assimilated the nationality of those who profess it, as in 
Western Asia. This is the case in some degree in Java, as 
it is in greater degree in Burma, and no doubt more than all 
in China. The people, in these countries, professing Islam, 
are to be compared with Abyssinian professors of Christian- 
ity. At the court of the Mussulman Sultan of Djokjokarta, 
in Java, I have had the honour of being introduced to half 
a dozen comely sultanas, and of shaking hands with them ; 
whilst I have seen the Sultan and his Court taking part in a 
banquet at the Dutch Residency, and in drinking a number 
of toasts, of which a printed programme in Dutch and 
Javanese was distributed. In the. capital of Burma, where 
professing Mahommedans are much less secluded from the 
influence of more orthodox Moslems than those of Yun-nan 
are, they have been characterised in passages of which I 
extract the following : ' As might be expected, they are very 
ignorant sons of the Faith, and, in the indiscriminating cha- 
racter of their diet, are said to be no better than their 
neighbours ; so that our strict Mussulmans from India were 
not willing to partake of their hospitalities.' And as regards 
names : * Every indigenous Mussulman has two names. 
Like the Irishman's dog, though his true name is Turk, he 
is always called Toby, As a son of Islam, he is probably 
Abdul Kureem ; but as a native of Burma, and for all 
practical purposes, he is Moung-yo, or Shwd-po.'^ The 
style of * Sultan Sulimdn,' &c., was no doubt confined to the 
few Hajjis or Mollahs that were at Ta-li. That there were 
such is proved by the Arabic circular which was issued, and 
which reached the Government of India in the way mentioned 
at page [99] note 5, below. The following is an extract from 

* Tu-Wen-Hsiu, or, as Cooper' calls him phonetically, Dow-win- 
sheow, had been a wealthy merchant in Tali. 

• Mission to the Court of Ava in 1855, pp. 151-152. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [95] 

that document : * O Followers of Mahommed ! in telling 
you how it fared with us, we offer grateful thanks to the 
Almighty. It behoves you to rejoice in the grace that God 
hath shown to us. . . . God gave us courage and created 
fear in the hearts of the Idolaters, so we, by the decree of • 
God, did defeat them. . . . Therefore we have set up a 
Mahommedan Sultan ; he is prudent, just, and generous. 
. . . His name is Sddik^ otherwise called Sultmdn, He has 
now established Mahommedan law. . . . Since we have 
made him our Imam we have been, by the decree of God, 
very victorious. . . . The metropolis of infidelity has become 
a city of Islam.* 

Bhamb, again, a small stockaded town, in lat. 24° 16', 
stands on a high bank over the Irawadi, on its eastern side, 
about two miles below the entrance of a considerable stream, 
which we have been used to call, from the Burmese side, the 
Ta-peng River, but which Captain Gill, who followed its 
course almost the whole way from Teng-Yueh-Chau (or 
Momien) to its confluence with the Irawadi, calls the Ta-Ying 
Ho, or T^ng-Yueh River. Here, or hereabouts, has long 
been the terminus of the land-commerce from China ; and 
as early as the middle of the fifteenth century we find at 
Venice, on the famous world-map of Frk Mauro (who no 
doubt got his information from Nicolo Conti, who had wan- 
dered to Burma earlier in that century), on the upper part of 
the river of Ava, a rubric which runs : Qui le marchatantie 
se translata da fiume a fiume per andar in Chataio. * Here 
goods are transferred from river to river, and so pass on to 
Cathay.' And in the first half of the seventeenth century 
there is some evidence of the maintenance here of an EngHsh 
factory for the East India Company. 

§ 24. The right to travel in the interior of China was 
first conceded by Article IX. of the Treaty of Tien-Tsin ^ 

* Art. IX. — British subjects ire hereby authorised to travel, for 
their pleasure or for purposes of trade, to all parts of the interior, under 
passports which will be issued by their Consuls, and countersigned by 
the local authorities. These passports, if demanded, must be produced 
for examination in the localities passed through. ... If he (the 
traveller) be without a passport, or if he commit an offence against the 
law, he shall be handed over to the nearest Consul for punishment, but 

f 



[96] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

which conferred it on all Englishmen. And this treaty un- 
doubtedly constitutes a landmark from which we are to date 
the commencement of modern exploration, and of a more 
exact knowledge, only now being slowly built up, of the 
physical geography of the country, of its natural resources, 
and of the true characteristics of the cities and populations 
of China, But here it is necessary to interpose a caveat. 
AVhen we speak of the commencement of modern exploration 
in China and Tibet, or allude to any modern traveller as 
being the first to visit this or that secluded locality in those 
regions, it must always be understood that we begin by 
assuming a large exception in favour of the missionaries of 
the Roman Church : for those regions have to a great extent, 
and for many years past, been habitually traversed by the 
devoted labourers who have been extending the cords of 
their Church in the interior, and on the inland frontier of 
China. Geographical research is not their object, and for a 
long period publicity was only adverse to their purpose ; and 
thus their labours and their journeys in those remote regions, 
which long preceded the treaty of Tien-Tsin, though often 
recorded in the Annales de la Propagation de la Foi and 
similar journals for those who seek them there, have only 
occasionally come before the notice of geographical societies, 
or of the public in Europe. There are, indeed, notable 
exceptions, of which we shall presently take account ; but 
apart from these, in hardly any instance has a traveller pene- 
trated in this region to a point where he has not found a 
member of these Roman Catholic missions to have been 
before him. 

§ 25. We have already alluded to the letter written from 
Tibetan territory by an eminent member of these missions, 
which reached the Asiatic Society of Bengal, to their no small 
surprise, in 1861. When Lieutenant Garnier and his party 
made their rapid and venturesome visit to Ta-Li-Fu, in 1868, 
their guide and helper was their countryman M. Leguilcher, 
of the same mission, whom they found in his seclusion near 
the north end of the Lake of Ta-Li-Fu, and with whom 

he must not be subjected to any ill-usage in excess of personal 
restraint. . . 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [97] 

Captain Gill made acquaintance nine years later at the city 
itself. Not only at Ch'ung-Ch'ing and at Ch'eng-Tu did 
Captain Gill find kindly aid among the members of these 
missions, but at Ta-Chien-Lu, on the acclivity of the great 
Tibetan plateau, like Mr. Cooper before him, he found, as 
we have mentioned in his Memoir, cordial welcome from the 
venerable Bishop Chauveau. 

Members of the same body were found by both travellers 
also at Bat'ang, in the basin of the Kin-sha, and on both 
occasions, at nine years' interval, the Abb^ Desgodins was 
one of their number. 

Bat'ang appears to be at present the furthest station of 
the missionaries towards Tibet ; nor have they any now 
within the actual Lhassa dominions. But at one time they 
had for some years establishments within the political, as 
well as the ethnical, boundary of Tibet. Abb^ Renou, the 
first of the body to make an advance in this direction, obtained 
in 1854 a perpetual lease of Bonga, a small valley in the hills 
adjoining the Lu-Kiang on its eastern bank, for a rent of 
16 or 17 taels. This is under the Government of Kiang-ka, 
where officials both Chinese and Tibetan reside. The mis- 
sionaries of Bonga cleared a good deal of land, erected 

. buildings, and began to have considerable success in making 
converts, both among the wilder tribes of the hills and 
among the Tibetan villagers around them. But in 1858 they 
were violently ejected by the person who had given the lease, 
aided by an armed party. No redress was got till 1862, when 
the Treaty of Tien-tsin began to take actual effect ; the suit 
of the missionaries was heard in the Court at Kiang-ka, and 
they were reinstated at Bonga. Three years later, however, 
the neighbouring Lamas, who, as Captain Gill several times 
explains, are very unpopular themselves, and who were all 
the more disposed to view with jealousy whatever success the 

• missionaries had among the people, took advantage of 
disorders in the province, and expelled the missionaries from 

. Bonga and other settlements outside the Chinese political 
frontier. MM. Desgodins and F. Biet, who were at Bonga, 
after a good deal of violence on one side, and some ad- 
ministration of presents on the other, were allowed to carry 

f2 



[98] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

off their flock into Chinese territory, but their estabhshment 
was sacked and burnt (September 29, 1865). ^M- I^urand 
and A. Biet, who directed an out-station at a place called 
Kie-na-tong (among the Lu-tse), on the Salwen, just within 
the Yun-nan boundary, were driven away, and the former 
was sht)t in crossing a swing bridge. 

Monseigneur Chauveau, who had at this time succeeded 
to the government of the mission, established his head- 
quarters at Ta-Chien-Lu, on the borders of what we should in 
India call the Regulation and the Non-Regulation Provinces, 
and out-stations were still maintained at Tseku and Yerkalo 
on the Lant'sang ; the former under Yun-nan, the latter in 
the Bat'ang territory, but none in Tibet proper. 

§ 26. In January 1867 the Kdji Jagat Sher, an envoy 
from Maharaja Jung Bahadur to the Court of China,^ was 
passing through Bat'ang, and made the acquaintance of the 
missionaries there. Their communications were in Enghsh, 
which was probably indifferent on both sides ; but what the 
Nepalese envoy said led the French fathers to suppose that 
the British Government in India had heard of their sufferings 
at the hands of the Tibetans, and had requested the Nepal 
Government to make inquiry.^ M. Desgodins accordingly 
sent by the hands of Jagat Sher a very interesting letter, 
written in very imperfect English, and addressed to the 
Resident at Katmandu (then Colonel George Ramsay), with 
a full account of their circumstances, of the violent treatment 
they had met with, and of the murder of M. Durand. The 
Governor-General, in replying to Colonel Ramsay's com- 
munication of this letter, expressed the deep interest with 
which he had read it, but intimated that the only intervention 
in their favour possible would be through the' Maharaja of 
Nepal, and through our Minister at Peking. The Govern- 
ment letter went on : — 

2 Cooper met Jagat Sher both at Ch'eng-Tu and near Bat'ang in 
returning. The Envoy had met with very bad treatment from the 
Chinese, and was not allowed to proceed beyond Ch'eng-Tu. (See 
Cooper, pp. 158 seq,, 398 seq.) 

* It does not seem to have been the fact that any news of the kind 
had reached India. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [99] 

You will, at the same time, however, observe that if the 
Government may be permitted to offer an opinion to men 
animated by higher considerations than those of mere personal 
security or success, these reverend gentlemen would do well to 
abandon the country in which their sufferings have been so 
great, and settle in British India, where there are extensive and 
peaceful tracts, such as Lahoul, Spiti, and Kulu, containing a 
semi-Thibetan population, likely to receive Christianity with 
favour. 

Copies of the correspondence were sent to our Minister 
at Peking, and of the letter intended for the missionaries, 
not only thither, and to Nepal, but to Laddk and Upper 
Assam. This shows how difficult any communication is 
across the iron wall that separates British India from the 
Chinese frontier ; * and it is greatly to be questioned if any 
one of the four copies ever reached its destination. That 
sent by Nepal was suppressed by the Chinese Amban at 
I^hassa ; the messenger vid, Assam failed in making his way, 
and after going fifteen days' journey from Sadiya, returned ; 
the copy from Ladak was forwarded by Dr. Cayley through 
the inauspicious medium of a monsignore of the Tibetan 
Curia, who was returning to Lhassa. Of that sent by Peking 
the fate has not reached us ; it is doubtful, from the allu- 
sion to the subject in a collection of notices on Tibet by 
M. Desgodins, whether it ever was received.^ 

* There are but three cases in our time that I can recall in which 
the iron wall was pierced by a piece of intelligence. The first was the 
murder of MM. Krick and Boury, of which we have spoken above. 
The second was this communication from the priests at Bat'ang to the 
Resident at Katmandu. The third was the Arabic proclamation or 
circular, issued in the name of the Panth6 rulers at Ta-Li-Fu, for the 
information of the Mahommedan world, which also reached Colonel 
Ramsay at Katmandu. A copy of it was given me by the lamented 
Mr. J. W. Wyllie, and it was printed by my late friend Lieutenant Fr. 
Gamier (to whom I gave it) in the appendix to his Voyage (f Exphraticntf 
vol. i. p. 564. 

* See that work {La Mission du Thibet de 1855 h 1870, Verdun, 
1872), pp. 115, 116. The facts in the text are gathered from a corre- 
spondence in the India Office After Lord Lawrence's death I read 
a Roman Catholic article which, while doing him noble justice in 
most respects, spoke regretfully of the narrow Ulster type of religion 
in which he had been educated, or words to that effect. I will only 
issy that the Viceroy who despatched the letter quoted above, and 



[loo] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

§ 27. This is, however, anticipating in chronological 
order. The first picture of Eastern Tibet in modern times 
was that set forth by the Abbe Hue in the famous narrative 
of his journey with Gabet, which astonished the world in 
1850. It is true that occasional letters from both Hue and 
Gabet had appeared in various numbers of the Annales de la 
Propagation de la Foi in 1 847-1 850, but the circle to which . 
that publication speaks was then probably even more 
limited and exclusive than it is now ; and I cannot find that 
practically anything was known to the pubHc of their remark- 
able journey prior to the publication of the work. Sir John 
Davis, indeed, has told us how he furnished Lord Palmerston, 
as early as 1847, with some particulars of the journey, which 
his secretary, Mr. Johnstone, had obtained from Gabet, who 
Was his fellow-passenger to Europe, and these appear to have 
been printed, for there are most curiously confused allusions 
to them in the article 'Asia,' in the eighth edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica,' published in 1853.^ And up to 
1855 there is absolutely, so far as I can discover, no notice 
of Hue or his companion in the Journals of the Royal 
Geographical Society, or in the annual discourses of its 
Presidents, except a singularly meagre one in Captain (after- 
wards Admiral) W. H. Smyth's address of 185 1, a reference 
which is certainly a notable example of scientific puritanism, 
true though it be that Hue does not belong in any sense or 
measure to. the scientific category^ Just as little was he 

took all this trouble for these remote French Roman Catholic priests, 
was Sir John Lawrence, whilst the signatm-e to the letter is that of Sir 
William Muir. 

• * Our scanty knowledge of Tibet has lately received a valuable 
addition in the journal of the Rev, Mr. Puch^ a French missionary, 
who proceeded from Peking, through Mongolia and Tangut, to 
L'Hassa, the capital of Tibet, which he left for China by the road 
through Kham. An English translation of his MS. journal was 
recently published under the auspices of Lord Palmerston. * The final 
redactor of the article was evidently unable to make anything of the 
* Rev. Mr. Puch,* and at the same time unwilling to disturb the refer- 
ences of his predecessor, so he tells us that *the travels of Hue, Gabet, 
and Ptuh have made some additions to our knowledge of Tartary 
and Tibet.' (8th edit. vol. i. p. 754.) 

^ ''The Narrative of a Residence in the Capital of Thibet, by 
M» Huc> a Lazarist missionary, contains some corroborative details 



GEOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTIOX. [loi] 

endded to be ranked, as he is by a late pretentious French 
writer on Chinese matters, with Pauthier (who with all his 
faults was a genuine and enthusiastic student), and with that 
modest and inde&tigable scholar Mr. Alexander Wylie, 
lumping aU three together, as this writer does, as * excellents 
sinologues.' * That Hue was, as a * sinologue,' next door to 
an impostor, and that his brilliant and, in the main, truthful 
sketches of travel in Tartary and Tibet were followed by later 
works of a gready degenerated character, is undeniable. 
But it is equally undeniable that Hue was a daring and dis- 
tinguished traveller, and the author of one of the most 
delightful books of travel ever ¥rritten.® 

§ 28. Many years before Hue's book appeared, we had, 
indeed, in the immortal work of Carl Ritter — at once a 
quarry and an edifice — a full, and, as far as all our subse- 
quent information goes, an accurate account of the great 
road from Ch'eng-Tu to Lhassa, by Ta-Chien-Lu, Bat'ang, 
Tsiamdo, &c., with the detail of its daily stages. This is 
taken from Klaproth's French edition of the Chinese Descrip- 
Hon du Tubet^ as rendered into Russian by the priest Hyacinth 
Bichurin (Paris, 1831). Hue makes a good deal of use of 
this itinerary, which describes the road which he followed 
on his return from Lhassa, in the very scanty contributions 
to geography which his narrative contains ; but had it been 
printed as an appendix to his book, we should have followed 
his journey with more intelligence. In judging of his work 
from a geographer's point of view, however, it is fair to remem- 
ber that, on this half of the journey at least, he and Gabet 
were travelling under arrest. 

At the time of Hue's return the Roman Catholic missions 
had apparently no outpost beyond Ch'eng-Tu. It was, as we 

respecting a country imperfectly known to Europeans.* — Jotir, A*. Geof^^ 
Sac, XX. p. Ixx. 

* See the Aihemtumi August 18, 1877, in which there is a review by 
the present writer of the work referred to. 

" I have spoken more fully regarding Hue in the Introductory 
Essay to my friend Mr. Delmar Morgan's translation of Colonel I'rc- 
jevalsky's travels, and have there defended the substantial truth of his 
* Souvenirs * against the Russian traveller's charges. That Hue 
embellished, and especially in his dramatic reports of conversations, nu 
one can question. 



|>o2] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

have seen, about eight years afterwards that they began to 
estabHsh themselves on the Tibetan frontier and beyond it. 
And apart from their Httle known movements, it was not till 
1 86 1 that any new endeavour occurred to penetrate those 
regions. 

§ 29. The first attempt to act in this direction upon the 
concessions of the treaty of Tien-Tsin was the voyage of 
Captain Blakiston, Lieutenant- Colonel Sarel, and Dr. Barton, 
accompanied by Mr. (since Bishop) Schereschewsky of an 
American mission, up the Yang-Tzii. Their object was to 
penetrate by Tibet, and across the Himalaya, into India. 
That was a bold aim, which even at this date, eighteen years 
Uter, has never been accomplished. But they were the first 
to ascend the Great River above Hankow, and penetrated 
to some fifty miles above the confluence of the Min River 
at SU-chau (Swi-Fu), reaching the town of Ping-shan. Here 
it was found impossible to go on, for their boatmen refused 
to advance any further on the river, and a land attempt was 
impracticable in the then disturbed state of the country. 
Captain Blakiston was a diligent surveyor, and brought back 
a detailed chart of the river for 840 miles. ^ Blakiston and 
Sarel left Hankow in March 1861, and reached it again at the 
end of June. The work which Captain Blakiston published 
on the subject of this voyage ^ contains much of interest, and 
the excellent woodcuts from Dr. Barton's sketches. Turning 
to another side of the geographical territory of which we are 
speaking, we should mention here an attempt made by two 
members of Ae Government service in Pegu (Captain C. E. 
Watson, and Mr. Fedden of the Geological Survey) to pene- 
trate northward to Thein-ni, on the direct road between the 
Bunnese capital and Ta-Li-Fu.^ They reached a point with- 

* A comparison of Blakiston's chart with the old Jesuit representa- 
tion of the river as given in D'Anville's maps is very favourable to the 
general correctness of the latter. Captain Gill, who made the com- 
parison at my request, wrote : * Generally the agreement is very 
remarkable. The greatest difference in general conformation is 
between I-tu and the entrance to the Tung-ting Lake.* 

* Five Months on the Yangtsze^ &c. London, J. Murray, 1862. 

■ Selections from the Records of the Government of India in Foreign 
Department, No. xlix. 1865. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [103] 

in little more than a march of Thein-ni, but the place was 
then in the hands of an insurgent chief, and they were 
obliged to turn back. The road is thus one which remains 
unexplored. It runs through the secluded Shan principality 
of Kaingma, in about latitude 23** 32', and thence to the 
Chinese city of Shun-Ning-Fu, called by the Burmese 
Shwen-li, and by the Shans Muangchan. At one part of 
this road, between Thein-ni and Shun-ning, it enters a tract 
partaking 'of the excessively unhealthy character ascribed by 
Marco Polo and by Captain Gill (ii. 345-6 ; infra^ pp. 272-4) 
to the same region a little further north, and the road then 
crosses the Mekong by an iron suspension bridge. 

§ 30. In 1868, no less than three attempts from three 
different points were made to penetrate the obscurities of the 
region of which we are treating : one by the French expedi- 
tion which started from Saigon ; a second by Mr. Cooper, 
from Ssii-ch'uan ; the third by an English expedition from 
Bhamb on the Irawadi. 

The great effort of the French party under Captain 
Doudart de la Grde of the navy, had been the exploration of 
the Mekong, which they ascended and surveyed from the delta, 
as far as Kiang-Hung, in lat 22° o' (a place that had been 
reached by Lieutenant, afterwards General, W. C. McLeod 
of the Madras army, on his solitary journey from Maulmain 
in 1837).* From this point they travelled through Southern 
Yun-nan, to the provincial capital, Yun-Nan-Fu, which they 
reached at the end of 1867, the first time in our knowledge 
that any European traveller (not being a missionary priest) 
had seen the Yachi of Marco Polo, since he himself was 
there, circa 1283. 

In view to examining the upper waters of the Mekong, 
and to other objects not very clear, but of which one perhaps 
was merely that of penetrating to a place which had been 
the subject of so much speculation, and the scene of such a 
singular revolution, the leaders of the party were very desir- 
ous to reach Ta-Li-Fu, then the capital of the chosen sove- 
reign of the Mahommedan, or quasi- Mahommedan, rebels 

^ The latitude of McLeod agrees perfectly with that of the French ; 
there is a difiference of 9' in their longitudes. 



[I04] 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



of Yun-nan, whom we, after the Burmese, call Pant/iis. The 
Chinese imperialist authorities at Yun-Nan-Fu received with 
laughter and amazement the proposal of the Frenchmen 
that they should be allowed to pass direct from the capital 
to the rebel outposts ; but they were bent on success, and 
achieved it at a later date, starting from Tong-ch'uan-fu, in 
the northern part of the province {lat. 26° ^si')- Captain 
Doudart was too ill to take part in the expedition, though 




his danger was not then suspected ; and the conduct of this 
digression fell to Lieutenant Francis Gamier. Starting from 
Tong-Ch'uan, January 30, 1868, they crossed and recrossed 
the River of Golden Sand on the eastern and southern limbs 
ofits great southward curve, passing near Hwai-Li, and cross- 
ing on the second occasion near the confluence of the Yar- 
lung with the Kin-sha, In the advance nearer Ta-Li the 
party owed much (as has been already noticed) to the 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [105] 

patriotic aid of M. Leguilcher. The meeting of the party 
with this gentleman in his remote parsonage at Tu-Tui-Tse, 
near the northern end of the Lake of Ta-Li, is not unhke the 
famous meeting of Stanley and Livingstone : — 

One of our guides pointed out to me, some hundred metres 
below, a little platform, hung as it were in mid-air against the 
flank of the mountain ; there were a few trees planted in rows, 
and a group of houses surmounted by a cross. I began running 
down the break-neck winding path, and before long I came in 
sight of a man with a long beard standing on the ^^%<t of the 
platform, who was attentively regarding me. In a few minutes 
more I was by his side : * Are not you P^re Leguilcher } ' 1 
said. * Yes, sir,' he answered with a little hesitation, * and no 
doubt you are come to announce Lieutenant Gamier, from 
whom I have just had a letter ? ' My dress, my unkempt look, 
my rifle and revolver, no doubt gave me in the Father's eyes 
the look of a buccaneer ; it was evidently not at all what he 
expected in an officer of the Navy ! — * I am the man who wrote 
the letter, mon p^re,' I said, laughing, * and I see you take me 
for my own servant. . . .' We exchanged a cordial grasp of the 
hand, and I introduced the members of the expedition as they 
came up in succession. * 

Accompanied by M. Leguilcher the party reached Ta-Li- 
Fu, but they had to leave it in hot haste (March 4) within 
thirty-six hours of their arrival. The success of their retreat 
was due to the tact and boldness of Garnrer. They returned 
to Tong-ch'uan by the route they had come, and on their 
arrival found that their gallant leader, Captain Doudart de 
la Gr^e, had died in their absence. 

§ 31. Some years later, after having completed a splendid 
and valuable book, and after taking an active part in the 
defence of Paris in 187 1, Gamier returned to China, bent 
on fresh exploration. What he accomplished before he was 
called away to another field, on which he fell, was chiefly in 
the detailed examination of the navigation of the Upper 
Yang-tzti, and of some of the scarcely known tributaries of 
the great river in Kwei-chau and Hu-nan. 

But the object which he had made specially his own aim 

* Voyage <r Exploration^ p. 510. 



[io6] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

was the exploration of the virgin field of Tibet. Indeed, in 
this direction he had, like my other friend. Captain Gill, 
aimed very high : — 

I am come to China (he wrote), as you conjecture, to endea- 
vour to penetrate Tibet. My object is to reconnoitre that part 
of the Ydni-tsang-pu which lies between Lhassa and Sadiya. If 
I am able — but I doubt it sorely — I should wish to return by 
the west, i.e. by Turkestan. I have just returned from Peking, 
where I have been to ask for passports, and letters of recom- 
mendation to the Chinese ambassador at Lhassa. I have seen 
reason to think, however, that these passports will have no 
great value, and that the difficulties to be encountered in pene- 
trating Tibet will be very great. And they will be enhanced by 
this, that instead of aiming at Lhassa by the usual road, I wish 
to adopt a more southerly line (about the 29th degree of latitude) 
so as to cross the sources of the Camboja and the Salwen, and 
to make an attempt to explore the sources of the Irawadi. The 
Brahmaputra- 1 rawadi question is, in my judgment, far from 
being absolutely settled ; and you have yourself, in the maps 
attached to Marco Polo, prolonged the Irawadi hypothetically 
beyond the limit assigned to it in your map of 1855. . . .^ 

In another letter, one of the last received from him, he 
recurred to the subject : — 

I thank you much for the paper you sent me on the hydro- 
graphy of Eastern Tibet. I must have said more than I in- 
tended, if in my last letter I led you to suppose that I inclined 
to the identity of the Irawadi and Tsang-pu. All chances and 
probabilities seem to me the other way, and in favour of the 
Brahmaputra, and my general map expresses this sufficiently. 
But we have to do with a country so singular, and so little like 
any other, that what would elsewhere amount to proof positive, 
leaves us here still in doubt. Like you I have no doubt that 
the continuation of the Irawadi is to be sought in some river of 
Tibet. The reasons which you assign for identifying this river 
with the Kuts' Kiang or Ch^t^ Kiang of Monsgr. des Mazures 
are very forcible. Did I tell you that we were informed in 
Burmese Laos that the Irawadi continued northward as a great 
river, which the Laotians call the Nam-mao, and which they 
distinguish from the Nam-Bum and the Nam-Kiu (Myit-ng^ 

* Letter, dated April 17, 1873, to the present writer. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [107] 

and Myit-gyi).^ The Nam-mao appears to be the Kuts' Kiang. 
.... I desire to avoid forming a theory, even in my own mind, 
for nothing hoodwinks a traveller like the adoption of a precon- 
ceived idea, .... but I repeat as regards the Brahmaputra 
the probabilities require to be corroborated by material demon- 
stration. 

The south-eastern region of Tibet, as far as we could judge 
on our approach to Li-kiang-fu and Tali, is a country full of 
surprises. The rivers vanish and appear again. A stream will 
bifurcate, and, by help of the caverns which abound in that 
limestone formation, the two branches will sometimes change 
from one basin into another, discharging into two different 
rivers. My impression — you will think it a strange one — is 
that, as regards the Brahmaputra and the Irawadi, or, in more 
general terms, at some point of the connection of the fluvial 
system of Tibet with that of India and Indo-China, there is a 
perte dufleuve — a phenomenon in fact analogous to that of the 
Rhone, but on a larger scale. We have seen this happen in 
Yun-nan with small rivers. And I am just returned from a 
journey to the frontiers of Szechuan and Kweichau, where I 
have been eye-witness of some ten varieties of this very phe- 
nomenon — rivers passing over one another, splitting in two, and 
changing from one basin to another. Nothing could be more 
curious, or more difficult to determine geographically, than 
the hydrographic network in the basin of the U-Kiang (the 
river of Kwei-yang — that river which some have assigned as the 
line of Marco Polo's return to Szechuan). Now there is a strik- 
ing analogy of geological formation and orographical character 
between this tract and the south-east of Tibet. It is altogether 
on a much smaller scale, that is all. Might not we expect to 
find in the course of the great rivers, of which we have been 
speaking, some such solution of continuity, which would explain 
the obscurity which actually hangs over them t This, I repeat, 
is no more than impression ; I take good care to keep from 
making it into a theory. . . . Pray make me useful in every 
way that can help your work. I read it carefully whenever I 
pass over any fraction of Marco Polo's itinerary. As yet I have 
found nothing of interest to say, unless it be that it seems to 
me the most exact and faithful impression of all that- can be 
known at this day of the acts and deeds of the traveller, and of 
the state of the countries which he traversed As soon as 

' These are the Burmese terms for * Little River ' and * Great 
River.' 



■OCRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

1 shallhaveconferred with Admiral Duprd,and have definitively I 
seltleU my plans, I will write again. I should of course be very I 
glad of the support of the English authorities, should I succeed! 
in emerging by Assam or Nepal.* 

§ 32. The second enterprise of 1868 to which we have. I 
made reference was that of Mr. Cooper. He left Hankow I 
on January 4, 1 868, Ch'eng-Tu on March 7, and Ta-Chien-Lu I 
on April 30, following, to Lit'ang and Bat'ang, the road over I 
the high plateau, afterwards traversed by Captain Gill. 
Cooper's hopes were raised at Bat'ang by the information heB 
received that the town or village of Roemah (on the Lohit ■ 




Brahmaputra), from which Assam was not far, could be I 
reached from that point in eighteen days. These hopeaJ 
were, however, speedily estinguished by the ])rohibition of th« I 
Chinese authorities, Mr, Cooper tlien decided on traveliingB 
to Ta-Li-Fu and Bhamb. His route beyond Bat'ang divergedT 
from that since followed by Captain Gill. Instead of fol-J 
lowing the River of Golden Sand he chiefly followed theT 
valley of the Lant'sang. He spent a night at Tse-ku,l 
within the Yun-nan boundary, on the western bank of that 
' Letter dated Saigon,August 28, 1873. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [109] 

river, where the French missionaries had an out- station 
among the aboriginal tribes, and an estate which they had 
purchased from one of the chiefs, occupied chiefly by con- 
verts from those tribes, Lu-tse (from whom the name Lu-ts'- 
Kiang, by which the river Salwen is known on this frontier, 
is taken), Lu-sus or Lisiis, Mossos or Mii-siis, and what 
not. This is the most westerly point that has been reached 
by any traveller from China in the region of the great rivers 
north of Bhamo. And Mr. Cooper appears to be almost 
justified in stating that he was here within 80 miles of 
Manch^ (on the Upper Irawadi), in the Khamti country, 
which was visited by Wilcox from India in 1827. The dis- 
tance is, however, apparently nearly 100 miles. South of 
this Mr. Cooper reached the Chinese town of Wei-Si-Fu, 
nearly due west of Li-Kiang-Fu, and there obtained passports 
from the military commandant to go on to Ta-Li. He 
advanced three days further, but a local chief of a tribe whom 
Mr. Cooper calls Tzefan, on the border of the Ta-Li territory 
(then under the * Panth^ ' Sultan), refused to let him pro- 
ceed, and on his return to Wei-si he was imprisoned and 
threatened with death by the civil officer in charge, who 
apparently believed him to be in communication with the 
Ta-Li rebels. After five weeks' imprisonment he was allowed 
to depart (August 6), and returned by the way he had come 
as far as Ya-Chou. Thence he diverged to the south, tra- 
velling through a beautiful country of tea-gardens, and of the 
white-wax cultivation, to Kia-Ting-Fu, a famous river-port 
and entrepot upon the Min River. This he descended to 
Swi-fu, where the two great contributories of the Yang-Tzu 
unite. Thence he descended the Great River to Hankow, 
which he reached November 11, 1868.^ 

In the following year Mr. Cooper made an attempt from 
the side of Assam to penetrate to Bat'ang. He started from 
Sadiya October, 1869, and passing up the line of the (Lohit) 
Brahmaputra, through the Mishmi country, reached Prun, 
a village about 20 miles from Roemah, the first Tibetan 
post, and half that distance from Samd, where MM. Krick 
and Boury were murdered. From this he was turned back. 

» This is called 1869 in Mr. Cooper's book, p. 450. 



[no] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

§ 33. Major Sladen's expedition, sent under the authority 
of the Government of India, left Bhamo February 26, 1868. 
After long detentions on the way, by want of carriage and 
other obstacles, placed in the way of the party, it was sup- 
posed, by the influence of Chinese merchants afraid of injury 
to their commercial monoply, they reached Momien (Teng- 
Yueh-Chou of the Chinese), then the frontier city towards 
the west of the Mahommedan Government of Western 
Yun-nan. The Governor received and entertained the 
party with great courtesy and hospitality, but entirely ob- 
jected to their proceeding further, on the professed ground 
of danger to themselves from the disturbed state of the 
country. They reached Momien on May 25, left it July 13, 
and arrived again at Bhamb on September 5, 1868. 

Major Sladen gave an account of the journey before the 
Royal Geographical Society, June 26, 1871,^ and Dr. Ander- 
son, the medical attendant of the party, and a good naturalist, 
has recorded all the proceedings and observations of the 
expedition in a work which contains much of interest. But 
there was not much geographical information collected, and 
an officer who had been specially attached to the party as 
surveyor was allowed, for reasons which it is not easy to 
understand, to quit it and return to Burma, when they were 
about half-way to Momiea^ 

Sir R. Alcock has pointed out how inevitably the friendly 
intercourse into which we entered, on this occasion, with the 
representatives of a body in revolt against China must have 
created distrust in the Imperial Government and its partisans 
in Yun-nan, and not improbably led, more or less directly, 
to a tragical catastrophe, when the attempt to explore the 
trade routes of the Yun-nan frontier was renewed six years 
later. The suspicion of foreign interference had perhaps 
another effect, in stimulating the Chinese Government to 

* Proceedings of Royal Geographical Society, xv. pp. 363 j^*^. 

2 Dr. Anderson's account was printed by Government at Calcutta, 
1 87 1, Report of an Expedition to Western Vunan, large 8vo. In 
another work, published in London, 1876, Mandalay to Momien^ he 
gives an account both of this and of Colonel Browne's expedition, of 
which also he was a member. And his scientific collections have beer, 
separately published in 4to. 



GEOGRAPMICAL INTRODUCTION. [m] 

effective measures for the extinction of the Mahommedan 
revolt 

§ 34. We pass now to 1872, in the March of which year 
Baron Richthofen was at Ch'eng-Tu, engaged on the last of 
those important journeys which formed the basis of his great 
work on China. The expedition which he projected and 
commenced from Ch'fing-Tu brings him within the category 
of explorers in the region which is our subject, though it 




came to an untimely end. His project will be best explained 
in his own words : — 

Although my journey ... as originally contemplated ended 
at Ching-tu-fu, I could not resist the temptation of Irying to 
add to it a trip through the south -western most portions of 
China, and to explore the mountains of Western Sz'ehwan, as 
well as the provinces of Yiin-nan and Kwei-chau. Besides 
hoping to contribute to the general knowledge of the geography, 
geology, and resources of these unknown regions, 1 wished to 
examine the metalliferous deposits that are widely spread 



[112] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

through them, and to gather some information respecting the 
many independent tribes inhabiting South -Western China, and 
their languages. My final object, however, was to explore the 
road from Ta-li-fu to Burma. I had some difficulty in collect- 
ing the necessary information, but finally settled upon the plan 
to travel by way of Ning-yuen-fu to Ta-li-fu, a journey of about 
five days, and thence to go to Teng-yu^-chau [Momien], the 
last place reached by Major Sladen on his way from Bamo to 
Yiin-nan. From that city I intended to go again eastward, by 
Yiin-nan-fu and Kwei-yang-fu, the capitals of the provinces of 
Yiin-nan and Kwei-chau, to Chung-king-fu on the Yangtze. ^ 

The traveller had accomplished half his journey to 
Ning-yuan-fu when, on the high Siang-ling pass, he was 
involved in a collision with a body of Chinese troops, whose 
outrageous aggression on his party, and its consequences, 
compelled him to retrace his steps, and to give up a journey 
from which a richer harvest might perhaps have been ex- 
pected than even from any that had preceded it. 

The journey has since been made, and Ning-yuan has 
been visited by Mr. Baber, as we shall see. The details of 
his journey are of great interest, for the country is secluded, 
and otherwise entirely unexplored ; and to me and some 
others the interest is of a still more special kind, because 
Ning-yuan is the capital of the valley and district of Kien- 
chang, which has been demonstrated (as I think), by Richt- 
hofen, to be the Gheindu or Caindu of Marco Polo, a 
country of which, with its cassia-buds and other spices, 
its strange Massagetic customs, its currency of gold rods 
and salt-loaves, the old traveller gives so remarkable an 
account* 

§ 35. In speaking of the labours and incidental journeys 
of the Roman Catholic missionaries, we have mentioned 
Abb^ Desgodins, a gentleman of great intelligence, and who 
has shown much interest in geography. A book was published 
at Verdun in 1872,^ professedly based upon his letters to his 
family. It contains a good deal of information for those 

* Letters to the Shanghai Chambers, No. VII. p. 3. 

* See book ii. chap. 47, and the notes to the second edition {vol. ii. 

P- 57). 

? La Mission du Thibet, de 1835 k 1870. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [113] 

who bring to its perusal some previous knowledge, to serve 
as amalgam in the process of extracting what is valuable ; 
but it has been compiled by a relative of the missionar)' 
without much clear acquaintance with the subject, and con- 
tains a good deal of matter of a kind which appears to be 
due to this circumstance. The history of the Abbe Desgo- 
dins is not a little remarkable, and shows the persistent 
character of the man. 

When first he quitted France as a recruit for the missions, 
in 1855, he was directed to proceed by way of British India, 
and to attempt to make his way to the mission establish- 
ments across the Tibetan highlands, in order to avoid the 
great detour and expense of the usual journey by the ports 
and broad interior of China. His first attempt was made 
by Darjeeling, where, as might have been expected, he had 
kindly relations with Mr. Bryan Hodgson, who was then 
living there. After various endeavours to negotiate admis- 
sion to Tibet by the Sikkim frontier, he was obliged to give 
it up, and, accompanied by M. Bernard, an older member of 
the fraternity, proceeded to the North-West Provinces, in 
order to attempt an entrance by Simla and the Sutlej. The 
priests were at Agra when the mutiny of 1857 broke out, 
and spent the summer in the fort there, with the rest of the 
* sahib-log.' After the relief, they were able to proceed to 
Simla, and went on by Rampiir to Chini on the Upper 
Sutlej. Here M. Desgodins was summoned back, and 
ordered to proceed by the more usual route to join his 
mission. We find him again at Agra in the hot weather of 
1858, and then doing duty as Roman Catholic chaplain to 
a British force at Jhansi. From this he writes to his 
parents : — 

You will think I am going to become a regular Croesus 
when I tell you that the Government of John Bull gives me for 
my services as Military Chaplain 800 francs a month, or, as 
they say here, 320 rupees. . . . However, when you know the 
state of things in India, and the prices, it is no small matter to 
make both ends meet ; so my dear nephew must not count on 
a fortune from my savings. Moreover, I hope not to be long 
in John Bull's service, but soon to be able to join my mission ; 

g2 



[114] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

I shall feel richer there with next to nothing, than here with my 
800 francs. — La Mission du Thibet^ p. 36. 

Receiving a fresh summons from Bishop des Mazures, he 
took his departure (after drawing at Agra a sum of about 
1,000 rupees for his services with the army). During his 
journey to the interior he was arrested, imprisoned, and 
sent back to Canton. Starting again under a new disguise, 
he finally reached the residence of the Bishop, near the 
frontier of Tibet, in June, i860, five years after his departure 
from France. 

§ 36. We now come to the journey of the gallant young 
traveller who, after being the first to open the way from 
China to the Irawadi, had hardly taken the first step on his 
return when his blood was left upon the path. 

In the spring of 1873 ^^ Imperial Government in Yun- 
nan succeeded, as has already been noticed, in finally 
crushing the insurgents who had maintained their indepen- 
dence for some seventeen years. 

The Government of India decided on now renewing the 
attempt to explore the road, and the facilities for trade 
between the Irawadi and China, which Major Sladen had 
been unable to carry out, owing to the state of political 
affairs when he visited Momien. Colonel Horace Browne, 
of the Pegu Commission, was appointed to lead the mission ; 
and it was settled that an officer of the consular service 
should be sent across China to Bhamb to meet the mission 
there, and to accompany them back to China as interpreter 
and Chinese adviser. 

The officer appointed to this duty was Augustus Ray- 
mond Margary, a young man of high character and promise. 
It is needless to detail a story still fresh in the public mind. 
His journey led him from Hankow across the Tung-Ting 
Lake, and by the regions, hardly known to Europeans, of 
Western Hu-Nan and Kwei-Chou to Yun-Nan-Fu, and 
thence to Ta-Li and Bhamb — the first of Englishmen to 
accomplish the feat that had been the object of so many 
ambitions, and to pass from the Yang-Tzii to the Irawadi. 

Margary reached Yun-Nan-Fu on November 27, 1874, 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [115] 

and writing home from this point he says : * I quite en- 
joyed the journey ; everywhere the people were charming, 
and the mandarins extremely civil, so that I had quite a 
triumphal progress/ The same good treatment was con- 
tinued through Yun-nan. He started again on December 2, 
and on the 14th or 15th reached Chao-Chou, 20 miles 
from Ta-Li (which, as the map will show, lies about ten miles 
off the direct road from Yun-Nan-Fu to the Burmese frontier). 
There was some unwillingness to let him visit that city, from 
a dread, probably real, of popular turbulence ; but this was 
overcome ; and he writes home, on returning to his quarters 
at Chao-Chou : — 

I visited the mandarins in turn, and had a most successful 
interview with all, but especially with the Tartar General, who 
treated me with extreme civility, very much in the style of a 
polished English gentleman receiving a younger man. I was 
perfectly delighted with his reception. He complimented me 
over and over again on my knowledge of Chinese, and . . . 
said he hoped on my return I would spend a few days with 
him'. ... * I should naturally wish to see everything, if I visited 
your country,' said he, ' and I shall have a house ready for you 
and your honoured officials when you return.® ' 

The General gave Margary the place of honour beside 
him. The Tao-tai, a young man, had omitted this 
courtesy. 

He reached Momien on January 4, 1875, ^"^^ Manwain, 
the place where he met his death seven weeks later, on the 
I ith. Here he was visited by * a furious ex-brigand called 
Li-Hsieh-Tai, who attacked our last expedition in 1867, and 
has been rewarded lately for his services against the rebels 
with a military command all over the country.' This is the 
man who was afterwards charged with the murder of 
Margary. On this occasion, to the traveller's great sur- 
prise, he prostrated himself, and paid him the highest 
honour. 

On January 1 7 Margary reached Bhamb, safe and trium- 
phant. * You may imagine,' he writes, * how full of delight 

• Margarfs JournalSy pp. 236, 278. 



/ 



[ii6] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

I am at the happy results of my journey, and the glowing 
prospect ahead.' ^ 

§ 37. After an unsuccessful attempt to proceed by a 
more southerly line from Bhamb, through Sawadi, Colonel 
Browne had to revert to the route by which Margary had 
come, and a start was made from Tsit-kau on the Bhamb 
river (Ma-mou or Sicaw of Captain Gill, ii. p. 384 ; infra^ 
p. 312) on February 16. The rest is best told in the words 
of the editor of his journals : — 

Early on the morning of February 19 Margary crossed the 
frontier with no escort but his Chinese secretary and servants, 
who had been with him through his whole journey, and a few 
Burmese muleteers. The next morning brought letters from 
him, reporting all safe up to Seray. He had been well received 
there, and had passed on to Manwyne. The mission followed 
slowly, reaching Seray on the 21st. . . . On the 22nd, in the 
early morning, the storm broke. The mission camp was almost 
surrounded by armed bands, while letters from the Burmese 
agent at Manwyne to the chief in command of their escort told 
that Margary had been brutally murdered at Manwyne on the 
previous day. But for the staunchness of the Burmese escort 
— who resisted all offers of their assailants of heavy bribes if 
they would draw off and allow them only to kill the ' foreign 
devils '— and the gallantry of the fifteen Sikhs who formed their 
body-guard, the whole mission must have shared the fate of 
their comrade. ... At Bhamo they eagerly sought for all par- 
ticulars of the murder, but without much success. The most 
trustworthy account was that of a Burmese who had seen Mar- 
gary walking about Manwyne, sometimes with Chinese, some- 
times alone, on the morning of the 21st. This man reported 
that he had left the town on his pony, to visit a hot spring at 
the invitation of some Chinese, who, as soon as they were out- 
side the town, had knocked him off his pony and speared him. 

§ 38. Then followed Sir T. Wade's unwearied negotia- 
tions with the Chinese Ministers, and the deputation of 
the Hon. T. G. Grosvenor, accompanied by Messrs. Baber 
and Davenport, to be present at the Chinese investigation at 
Yun-Nan-Fu. 

The Chinese Government had given the strongest assur- 

' Page 308. 






GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [117] 

ances that the investigation should be conducted with a view 
to the production of trustworthy witnesses, and the punish- 
ment of the real offenders. But the fact was far otherwise. 
No witness of the murder was allowed to be produced. The 
story which Mr. Grosvenor was pressed to accept was that 
Margary had been murdered by savages ; that Li-Hsieh-Tai 
(or Li-Chen- Kou, as he was officially designated in China) 
had organised the attack on Colonel Browne ; that the 
Momien train-bands had not been moved out of Momien, 
but had stood there only on the defensive. 

The manner in which the affair had been dealt with 
showed that what had happened in Yun-nan had been done, 
if not by the direct order, at least with the approval after the 
fact, of the Central Government, and our Minister could only 
express his entire disbelief in the case put forward, and de- 
cline to agree to the execution of any of the persons whom 
the Chinese investigation professed to incriminate. 

§ 39. The termination of the affair was one of the 
matters embraced in the 'Agreement of Chefoo,' signed 
September 13, 1876. This provided, among other things 
(Sect. I. ii.), that a proclamation should be issued by the 
Chinese Government, embodying a memorial of the Grand 
Secretary Li with an imperial decree in reply. These docu- 
ments embraced a statement of the facts of the deputation 
and murder of Mr. Margary, a recognition of the gravity 
of the outrage, of the necessity of observing treaties, of the 
anxiety of the Imperial Court to maintain friendly relations 
with foreign powers, and of its regret for what had occurred, 
with an injunction on local authorities to give protection to 
foreign travellers, and to study the treaty of Tien-Tsin. It 
was also agreed that for two years to come officers should be 
sent by the British Minister to different places in the pro- 
vinces to see that this proclamation was posted. 

This is the Margary Proclamation^ referred to by Cap- 
tain Gill in the remoter part of his travels. 

The agreement also provided (ib. iii.) that an imperial 
decree should be issued directing that whenever the British 
Government should send officers to Yun-nan the authorities 
of that province should select an officer of rank to confer 



£ii8] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTIOA 

with them, and to conclude a satisfactory arrangement re- 
garding trade. 

The British Government was also {ib, iv.) to be at liberty 
for five years to station officers at Ta-Li-Fu, or other suitable 
place in Yun-nan, to observe the conditions of trade. 

Passports having been obtained the preceding year for 
a mission from India to Yun-nan (Colonel Browne's), it 
would be open to the Viceroy of India to send such mission 
when he should see fit. 

An indemnity {ib, v.) was to be paid on account of the 
families of those killed in Yun-nan, on account of the ex- 
penses occasioned by the Yun-nan affair, and on account of 
claims of British merchants arising out of the action of 
officers of the Chinese Government ; and this indemnity was 
fixed at 200,000 taels. 

When the case should be closed, an imperial letter of 
regret was to be carried by a mission to England (vi.). 

Under Sect. III. i., several free ports, including I-chang, 
on the Upper Yang-Tzu, were added to those already con- 
stituted, and the British Government were authorised to 
establish a consular officer at Ch'ung-Ch'ing, to watch the 
trade in Ssu-Ch'uan. 

Also by a separate article it was provided that the 
Tsung-Li Yamen should, at the proper time, issue passports 
for a British mission of exploration, either by way of Peking 
through Kan-Su and Koko Nor, or by way of Ssu-Ch'uan to 
Tibet. Or, if the mission should proceed by the Indian 
frontier to Tibet, the Yamen should write to the Chinese 
resident in Tibet, who should send officers to take due care 
of the mission, whilst passports also should be issued for the 
latter. 

It is hardly necessary to say that no residents in Yun-nan 
have been appointed under this agreement ; nor has any 
mission again entered Yun-nan, nor any official mission of 
exploration been sent to Tibet. 

§ 40. Going back a little, I may record that Mr. Gros- 
venor's mission to Yun-nan left Hankow November 5, 
1875, reached Yun- Nan- Fu on March 6, 1876 ; Ta-Li-Fu on 
April 1 1 ; Momien on May 3 ; and Bhamb I don't know 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [irg] 

when, for I have searched the reports, as published, of all the 
members of the mission without being able to find the date. 
Mr. Arthur Davenport, one of the members, has made 
an interesting report onthetradingcapabilities of the country 
traversed by it, forwarded by Sir T. Wade to the Foreign 
Office, October 9, 1876. 

.Another of the officers attached to Mr. Grosvenor's 
mission was fortunately Mr. E. Colbome Baber, a gentleman 
who seems thoroughly imbued with the true genius of travel, 




a spirit which has led him apparently to spend his holidays 
in exploring fresh fields and gathering fresh stores of know- 
ledge. 

On another expedition accomplished in solitude in the 
autumn of 1877 from his consulate at Ch'ung-Ch'ing, he 
succeeded in completing the journey which Richthofen was 
compelled to abandon, making his way from Ya-Chou to 
Ning-Yuan-Fu. 



[i2o] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

His notes on the latter part of the route followed by the 
Grosvenor mission (that between Ta-Li and Momien), pub- 
lished by command, first made the English public, though 
we fear only a very limited portion of it, acquainted with his 
name. But these notes, and the maps which accompanied 
them, have given Mr. Baber per saltum a very high place 
among travellers capable of seeing, of surveying, and of de- 
scribing with extraordinary vivacity and force. 

Considering, however, how intimately I have been asso- 
ciated with Mr. Baber in preparing the present volume for 
the press, I shall do well, instead of saying more of my own 
view of what we owe him, to quote what was said by Lord 
Aberdare as President of the Royal Geographical Society, 
when presenting him with one of their gold medals on 
May 28, 1883 :— 

If the Royal Geographical Society were asked to justify 
their choice of you, among several distinguished competitors, 
for the honour of receiving our Patron's— the Queen's — Gold 
Medal, we should confidently refer to that first part of our first 
volume of * Supplementary Papers,' published by the Society, 
and containing your 'Travels and Researches in Western 
China.' 

The first of these travels — not in the order of printing, but 
in date — was the narrative of your mission under the Hon. T. 
Grosvenor in 1876, sent across Yun-nan to Bham6, to investi- 
gate the murder of Mr. Margary. This narrative, in spite of 
the disadvantage of making its appearance as a blue-book, and 
therefore obtaining but a limited circulation, yet * a fit audience 
found though few,' and made European geographers acquainted 
with the fact that a geographical observer and narrator of re- 
markable power had appeared in the Far East. The map 
accompanying this blue-book was from your survey. 

This narrative was speedily followed by a Journey of Ex* 
ploration in Western Ssii-Ch'uan in 1877, upon which perhaps 
rest your highest claims as a traveller and explorer. This 
journey, which completed much that was attempted by our 
eminent medallist. Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen in 1872, 
who was baffled in his enterprise by native hostility, and which 
extended largely the knowledge of that vast district acquired by 
the distinguished French traveller Francis Garnier in 1868, was 
in great part over entirely new ground, and introduced us to the 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [121] 

knowledge of several objects of the highest interest, such as, 
among many others. Mount Omi, a notable place of Buddhist 
pilgrimage, of which and its unique antiquities you gave a most 
graphic description ; and as the little-known people, the Lolos, 
from whom you brought back copious specimens of their books, 
written in an alphabetic character which still remains unde- 
ciphered. But perhaps its greatest value depends upon the 
many important corrections of the Jesuit surveys in those parts, 
made in the time of the Emperor Kang-Hi, which for more than a 
century and a half have been the basis of all our maps of China. 

Another journey in 1878 in the same province, when, following 
the earlier part of your former route westward from Kia-ting-fu, 
you turned northward by a new line of mountain country occu- 
pied by the Sifan tribes, to the now well-known town of Tachien- 
lu on the great Lhassa road, made a considerable addition to 
the accurate knowledge of those regions. 

The same * Supplementary Papers ' also contain a most in- 
teresting and valuable monograph by you on the Chinese tea- 
trade with Tibet. 

In all these journeys you made careful route surveys, checked 
by observations for latitude and longitude. The maps which 
have been published in our volume, embrace, on your principal 
journey alone, 121 astronomical determinations of latitude and 
seven of longitude, and the care and neatness with which these 
surveys were drawn by you excited general admiration. 

Of these great services to geography I have given only the 
dry outlines. It is the merest justice to you to add that your 
journeys have been exceptionally productive, because of the 
exceptional store of various and accurate knowledge with which 
you started on your travels. Your mastery of the Chinese 
language, and of Chinese customs and habits of thought, 
enabled you to collect a great amount of miscellaneous in- 
formation, which has been conveyed in narratives full of novelty, 
vivacity, and sustained interest. Altogether, both in these 
journeys and the report of their results, you have displayed the 
qualities of an accomplished traveller in a degree of which we 
have had few examples, and which fully justify our choice of 
you for sharing with Sir Joseph Hooker our highest distinction, 
even although you have, we firmly believe, only given the first- 
fruits of that rich harvest which we expect from your matured 
powers and enlarged experience. 

. § 41. The following passage, describing the first transition 



[122] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

from a Chinese to a Tibetan atmosphere, is a fair specimen of 
the style which makes Mr. Baber's reports, whilst abounding 
in valuable information, almost as unique among blue-books 
as the autobiography of his illustrious namesake — I suppose 
we cannot say ancestor — is among Asiatic volumes : — 

The remaindef of the journey was impeded by nothing 
worse than natural difficulties, such as fevers and the extreme 
ruggedness of the mountain ranges. We quitted cultivation at 
the foot of a pine-forest, through which we travelled three days, 
ascending continually until we came to a snowy pass — the only 
pass in the country which, as the natives say, * hang-j^n,' stops 
people's breathing. Descending its northern slope, we soon 
found that we had left China behind. There were no Chinese 
to be seen. The valley was nearly all pasture-land, on which 
were grazing herds of hairy animals, resembling immense goats. 
These I rightly conjectured to be yaks. On entering a hut, I 
found it impossible to communicate with the family, even a 
Sifan, whom I had brought with me, being unintelligible to 
them ; but they were polite enough to rescue me from the 
attack of the largest dogs I have ever seen, and to regale me 
with barleymeal in a wooden bowl, which I had to wash down 
with a broth made of butter, salt, and tea-twigs. Further on 
we met a company of cavaliers, armed with match-lock and 
sabre, and decorated with profuse ornaments in silver, coral, 
and turquoise ; a troop of women followed on foot, making 
merry at my expense. A mile or two further, and I came to a 
great heap of slates, inscribed with Sanskrit characters, where- 
upon I began to understand that we were in Thibet ; for 
although Thibet proper is many hundred miles west of this 
point, yet traces of Thibetan race and language extend right up 
to the bank of the Tatu River — a fact which I had not been led 
to expect. 

§ 42. In this review we have had occasion to speak 
frequently and largely of the enterprising devotion of the 
Roman Catholic missionary priests in the obscure regions 
with which we have had to do. It has been the fortune of 
the present writer to spend many years in a Roman Catholic 
country without feeling in the least degree that attraction to 
the Roman Church which influences some — indeed, he 
might speak much more strongly. But it is with pleasure 
and reverence that one contemplates their labour and devo- 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [113] 

tion in fields where these are exercised so much to the side 
of good, and where there is no provocation to intolerance or 
to controversy except with the heathen ; no room for the 
display of that spirit which in some regions has led the priests 
of this Church to take advantage of openings made by others 
to step in and mar results to the best of their power. The 
recognition of the labours and devotion of which we spoke 
just now has often led to sarcastic contrast of their work with 
that of Protestant missionaries, to the disparagement of the 
latter — such as occurs not unfrequently in the narrative of 
Mr. Cooper ; in this I have no sympathy. There may be 
much which the members of Protestant missions should 
carefully study (and which some of them probably have often 
studied) in the results that provoke such comparisons, but it 
is a shallow judgment that condemns them on a superficial 
view of those results. In any case, the discussion would here 
be out of place, and I have no intention of entering on it. 
Though it is only of late years comparatively that Protestant 
missionaries in China have contributed to our geographical 
knowledge of the western frontier, we must not overlook what 
they have done. Mr. Williamson's excellent work ^ does 
not reach our limits, as he was not nearer than Si-Ngan-Fu. 
But my valued friend Mr. Alexander Wylie, long agent at 
Shanghai of the Bible Society, was one of the earliest in our 
day to visit Ssu-Ch'uan, and to give us an account of its 
highly civilised capital, Ch'eng-Tu. His visit occurred in 
1868.® More recently, some of the numerous agents of the 
society called the China Inland Mission have been active in 
the reconnaissance of these outlying regions. 

Mr. McCarthy, one of the agents of this society, was the 
first non-oflficial traveller to accomplish the journey to 
Bhamb. This he did from Ch'ung-Ch'ing on foot, travelling 
south to Kwei-Yang-Fu, and then onwards to Yun-Nan-Fu, 
and Ta-Li, and so forth, reaching Bhamb on August 26, 1877, 
a little more than two months before Captain GilFs arrival at 

• youmeys m North China, Manchuria, dr'c. London, 1870. 

• See Proceeding's of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. xiv. 
p. 168 seq, Mr. Wylie has now been visited with total blindness. 
Few have used their eyes so well and disinterestedly. 



[124] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

that place. Mr. McCarthy wore the Chinese dress, as the 
members of his mission appear frequently to do, but made 
the character and object of his journey generally known. 
He was nearly everywhere treated with civility, often with 
kindness. * Throughout the whole journey,' he says, * I have 
not once had to appeal to an officer for help of any kind, and 
in no case has any officer put an obstacle in my way.' ^ 

Mr. Cameron, another agent of the same society, followed 
Captain Gill not long after that officer, leaving Ch'eng-Tu on 
September 13, 1877, ^^^ ^^^r an unsuccessful attempt to 
make the directer road to Ta-Chien-Lu, had to adopt the 
usual and more circuitous line by Ya-Chou, taken by 
Captain Gill. He also followed in Captain Gill's traces to 
Lit'ang, Bat'ang, and A-tun-tzu. He was kindly and cour- 
teously received by the French priest at Bat'ang (M. Des- 
godins). At A-tun-tzii the solitary traveller was laid up 
for many days with a bad attack of fever. On his recovery 
his further route deviated from Captain Gill's, as he went 
further to the west, by Wei-si, where Cooper was imprisoned 
in 1868. He reached Ta-Li-Fu on December 23, and Bhamb 
at the end of January, 1878. Mr. Cameron's journal is that 
of a simple and zealous man, and from his being without a 
companion, and thus seeing the more of the people, has 
many interesting passages. But there is hardly any recog- 
nition of geography in it ; less a good deal than in Hue's 
narrative. For example, the passage of the famous Yar- 
lung Kiang is only noticed as that of * a small river ' below a 
place called Hok'eo.^ 

§ 43. The long passage through which we have con- 
ducted our readers —or some of them at least, we trust — in 
this Geographical Introduction must not close without a brief 
section devoted to Captain Gill's own journeys ; avoiding as 
far as possible repetition of what has been said in the Memoir. 

* Letter from the traveller to Mr. T. T. Cooper, British Agent at 
Bham6, dated September 4, 1877, in ChiruCs Millions ^ the periodical 
of Mr. McCarthy's Society, for 1878, p. 6i. Mr. McCarthy also read 
an account of his journey before the Royal Geographical Society ; see 
the Proceedings (August), 1879, pp. 489 seq, 

* See Captain Gill, vol. ii. p. 137; infra^ p. 197. Mr. Cameron's journal 
is published in Chinds Millions for 1879, pp. 65 seq,^ 97 seq,y 109 seq. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [125] 

His first journey, in the north of Pe-Chih-Li, was but 
a trial of his powers. His ascent of the Yang-Tzti, though 
full of interesting detail, is on a line that has been de- 
scribed by several predecessors since Blakiston. The more 
important and novel itinerary begins with his excursion from 
Ch'eng-Tu to the Northern Alps. 

Captain Gill on this occasion came into the land of the 
highland races whom the Chinese call Man-Tzii and Si- Fan. 
It is difficult to grasp the Chinese ethnological distinctions, 
though doubtless there is some principle at the bottom of 
those distinctions. The races generally along the western 
frontier are, as Richthofen tells us,^ classed by the Chinese 
as Lolo^ Man-Tzu^ Si-Fan and Tibetan, 

The Lolo are furthest to the south, and occupy the 
mountains west of the Min, and west of the north-running 
section of the Kin-sha — fiercely independent, but not ignoble, 
caterans, a barrier to all direct intercourse across their hills, 
and frequent in their raids on the Chinese population below. 
Captain Gill did not come in contact with them, but Mr. 
Baber has since supplied us with a valuable amount of 
information regarding their manners, language, and con- 
dition. 

The Man-Tzii are regarded by the Chinese as the descen- 
dants of the ancient occupants of the province of Ssii-Ch'uan, 
and Mr. Wylie has drawn attention to the numerous cave 
dwellings which are ascribed to them in the valley of the 
Min River. The name is applied to the tribes which occupy 
the high mountains on the west of the province up to about 
32° lat North of that parallel, beginning a little south of 
Sung-Pan-Ting, the extreme point of Captain Gill's ex- 
cursion in this direction, are the Si-Fan ( * western aliens ' ), 
who extend into the Koko-Nur basin, through an alpine 
country which remains virgin as regards all European ex- 
ploration. 

§ 44. Both terms, Man-Tzii and Si-Fan, seem, however, 
to be used somewhat loosely or ambiguously. 

Thus, Man-Tzu is applied to some tribes which are not 

• Letters to Shanghai Chamber of Commerce^ No. vii. p. 6^, 
Shanghai, 1872. 



[i26] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

Tibetan, whilst it is also applied to people, like those on the 
Ta-Chien-Lu road, who are distinctly Tibetan.* 

Thus, also, Si-Fan appears to be sometimes applied to the 
whole body of tribes, of differing languages, who occupy the 
alpine country between Koko-Nur and the Lolo mountain 
country, and sometimes distinctively to a Tibetan-speaking 
race who form a large part of the occupants of that country 
on the north-east of Tibet, and in the Koko-Nur basin, the 
Tangutans of Colonel Prejevalsky.^ And in this sense it is 
used in Captain Gill's book ; for the Si- Fan of whom he 
speaks use a Tibetan dialect, as will presently be manifest, 
and also (from specimens that he brought away with him) 
use the Tibetan character. They seem to correspond to the 
Amdoans of Mr. Bryan Hodgson, in the passage which I am 
about to quote. 

This passage exemplifies the wider sense of the term 
Si-fan 6 :— 

From Khokho-Nur to Yunndn, the conterminous frontier of 
China and Tibet is successively and continuously occupied 
(going from north to south) by the S6kpa ; ... by the Am- 
doans, who for the most part now speak Tibetan ; by the 
Th6chu ; bythe Gydrung; andbythe Mdnydk. . . . The people 
of S6kyul, of Amdo, of Th6chu, of Gydrung, and of Mdnydk, 
who are under chiefs of their own, styled Gydbo or King, sinicl 
* Wang,' bear among the Chinese the common designation of 
Sifdn, or Western aliens ; and the Tibetans frequently de- 
nominate the whole of them Gydr^ng-bo^ from the superior 
importance of the special tribe of Gyarung. . . . The word Gyd^ 
in the language of Tibet, is equivalent to that of Fan {altenus, 
barbaros) in the language of China. ^ 



* The Description du Tiibet, translated by Klaproth, says expressly 
that the people about Ta-Chien-Lu belong to the same souche as the 
Tibetans, and have the same manners (p. 266). Cooper, on this road, 
uses Man-TzU as the Chinese synonym of Tibetan (see p. 174, et 
passim). But ethnologically Tibetan is analogous in value to Latin, 

* Prejevalsky s Travels^ translated by Mr. Delmar Morgan, vol. ii. 
passiniy and note at p. 301. 

* Mr. Baber again, in his printed letter, quoted from in § 40, calls 
the tribal chief with whom he had to do, a long way south of Ta- 
Chien-Lu, a Si-Fan. 

^ Hodgson^ s Essaysy 1874, part ii. pp. 66, 67. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



[127] 



The fact mentioned in the last lines of the extract, if 
correct (and no one's statements are more full of knowledge 
or more carefully weighed in general than Mr. Hodgson's), 
would imply that the Tibetans proper do not regard these 
Si-Fan tribes as of their own blood, even those of them who 
BOW speak Tibetan ; and possibly we may have to apply this 
to the Man-Tzu also adjoining the Ta-Chien-Lu road. Mr. 
Hodgson, in speaking of some of the authorities for the 
vocabularies which he gives of the Si- Fan languages, tells us 
that his Gydrung came from Tazar, north of Tachindo (i.e. 
of Ta-Chien-Lu), whilst his Mdnyaker was a mendicant friar 
(of the heretical Bonpa sect), a native of Ra'kho, six days 
south of Tachindo. These are the only data I find as to the 
position of the two tribes named- We shall presently find a 
third as to the position of the Thochu, which also will fall 
into its proper place in Hodgson^s series, and confirm his 
accuracy. 

I proceed now to insert the numerals of three of the 
tribes as collected orally by Captain Gill (A, B, C) ; ® to 
which I add for comparison the spoken Tibetan (D), and 
the Thochu (E), from Hodgson's comparative vocabularies. 
To thqse I have now adjoined (F) Mr. Baber's Lolo from the 
left bank of the T'ung River : — 



A 


B 


C 


D 


E 


f; 


I chek 


dr-gd 


ki 


cMk 


dri 


ts'u 


2 ny! 


ner-gii 


ny6 


nyi 


gndri 


ni 


3 s6 


ksir-gii 


song 


sum 


khshiri 


su or soa 


4 zh3 


sAir-gii 


hgherh 


zhyi 


gzhdr6 


erh 


5 kna 


wdr-gii 


hnd 


gnd 


wdr^ 


ngu 


6 trtl 


shtiir-gii 


dm 


thii (druk) 


khatdr^ 


f6 


7 dan 


shner-gii 


ten 


dun 


stdr^ 


shih 


8 gyot 


kshdr-gd 


gy6 


gy^ 


khrdr^ 


shie 


9 guh 


rber-gu 


kSr 


giih 


rgur6 


gu 


10 pchS 


khdd-gii 


cht-thomba 


chiih or 
chii-thdmbd 


hadiir^ ■ 

1 


tch'je 
or ts'e 


11 pchg-chek 


khdt-yi 


ki-tze • 


• « . 


« » 


tch'i-tsu 


12 pchS-nyg 


khd-ner 


chu-nye . 


• • » 


. • 


tch'i-ni 


20 ny6-sh6 


( ner-sd or 
\ ne-sd 


nye-ka- 
thomba 


Inyi-shii . 


• • 


ni-ts'e. 



Now the first thing apparent here is that A and C — i.e. 

* A is the language of the * Man-Tzu ' at Li-Fan-Fu ; B that of the 
* Outer Man-Tzu ' there— or people further west ; C that of the * Si- 
Fan ' about Sung- Pan-Ting. 

h 



[128] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

the so-called ' Man-Tzu ' of Li-Fan-Fu, and the * Si-Fan,* are 
both Tibetan dialects. The Lolo numerals also show an 
unexpected amount of similarity to the Tibetan. 

Next, a comparison with E shows that the * outer Man- 
Tzu ' of Li-Fan-Fu are the race which Hodgson calls Tho- 
chu, and that their language is not Tibetan. They will be near 
Li-Fan-Fu, in their place according to Hodgson's series from 
north to south, the * Si-Fan' being assumed to be his 
Amdoans^ whilst his Gyarung^ north of Ta-Chien-Lu, are 
probably the Man-Tzu of Abbd David at Mou-Pin ; and his 
Manyak are Mr. Baber's * Meniak,' south of Ta-Chien-Lu. 

Again, we observe that though the essential parts of the 
numerals in B and E are identical, the persistent affixes (or, 
as Hodgson calls them, * servile ' affixes) are different— ^^^ in 
the one, re or ri in the other. In his comparative table we 
find the servile affix ku in the numerals of another language 
— a Chinese dialect which he called Gyami \ and in the 
Meniak, or Manyak^ we find a similar affix, bu or bi^ 

§ 45. On his return to Ch'eng-Tu Captain Gill was joined 
by Mr. Mesny, a gentleman from Jersey, who has passed a 
good many years in the interior of China, and particularly 
at Kwei-Yang-Fu, in the service of the Chinese Government.* 

Captain Gill had intended in his preface to render his 
thanks and a tribute of praise to his companion for the 
assistance which was derived from him during the journey 
from Ch'eng-Tu to Bhamb. And when circumstances caused 

» Thus I, tabi ; 2, nabi ; 3, sibi ; 4, rebi ; 5, gnabi ; 6, trubi ; 7, 
skwibi {qu. shwibi ?) ; 8. zibij 9, gubi; 10, chechibi. These from Hodgson 
correspond fairly with Baber's Meniak (see p. 73 of his papers published 
by the Royal Geographical Society). Here, comparing with D, the 
essential part of 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10 is evidently Tibetan ; the others 
diverge. These * servile * affixes perhaps correspond to the numeral 
affixes or co-efficients which are necessary to the use of numerals in 
Chinese, Burmese, Malay, Mexican, &c., and which change with the 
class of objects indicated. This would account for the variation 
between B and E. China * Pigeon English ' replaces the whole of 
these co-efficients by the universal * piecey.' 

* Mr. Mesny has been honoured with the ancient Manchu title of 
Baiuru, identical wiih the bahddur of India. Some of Mr. Mesny's 
itineraries in untravelled, or little travelled, parts of China were pre- 
pared for publication at Captain Gill's expense, and will be eventually 
published by the Royal Geographical Society. 



IDEOGRAPHICAL IXTRODICTIOX. [129] 

this prefatory essay to be written by another hand he still 
desired that the following words of his own should be intro> 
duced : — 

If Mr. Mesny's name occurs but rarely in my book, it is but 
because he was so thoroughly and completely identified with 
myself that it seldom occurred to me to refer to my companion 
otherwise than as included in the pronoun " we.' But I should 
be loth to let slip this opportunity of thanking the companion 
of so many long and wear)* marches for the persistence with 
which he seconded my efforts to achieve a rapid and successful 
journey ; for his patience under difficulties and some real trials, 
and for the courage he showed when it was called for. Above 
all, I desire to say how much I feel that, in our dealings with 
the Chinese officials, the friendly relations we were able to 
maintain with them, and the aid we were able to obtain from 
them, were in large measure due to Mr. Mcsny. Especially in 
the negotiation for our passage betvveen Yiin-Nan and Bunna 
was Mr. Mesn>''s help invaluable. And I feel that whatever 
credit may attach to the successful accomplishment of the 
journey, a very large share of it is due to Mr. Mesny, who, for 
the love of travel alone, gave up a remunerative employment 
under the Chinese Government to become my comparrfon. As 
long as the events of those sixteen weeks shall have a place in 
my memory, so long will the kindly support of my companion 
be among the freshest and pleasantest of them all. 

§ 46. The first place of importance reached after leaving 
Ch'eng-Tu was Ya-Chou, the entrepdt and starting-point of 
the trade with Tibet. The staple of this trade is the brick- 
tea, or rather cake-tea (afterwards broken up into brick-tea). 
Captain Gill has given some interesting particulars of this 
(ii. 47 ; infra^ ^59) > as he has in a previous part of his 
book (i. 176 seq, \ infra^ 47) regarding a similar manufacture 
carried on by the Russians established at Hankow, for the 
market of Mongolia. 

Whilst I was writing these paragraphs a report was put 
into my hands, in which Mr. Baber gives most curious details 
respecting this Tibetan tea-trade.^ The tea grown for it is 

• In supplement to Calcutta Gazette^ November 8, 1879. This 
has been reprinted with Mr. Babel's Journeys in the Supplementary 
Papers of the Royal Geographical Society ^ 1882, pp. 192 seq* 

h2 



[1 30] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 

peculiar* It is not derived from the carefully manipulated 
leaves of carefully tended gardens, but from scrubby, strag- 
gling, and uncared-for trees, allowed to attain a height of 
nine or ten feet and more. Even of these plants only the 
inferior produce is devoted to the use of the barbarian : in 
fact, what is mere refuse. * I saw great quantities of this,' 
writes Mr. Baber, * being brought in from the country on 
the backs of coolies, in bundles eight feet long by nearly a 
yard broad, and supposed it to be fuel ; it looks like brush- 
wood, and is, in fact, merely branches broken off the trees 
and dried in the sun, without any pretence at picking. It 
sells in Yung-Ching for 2,000 cash a pecul at the outside, and 
its quality may be judged from a comparison of this price 
with that of the common tea drunk by the poorer classes 
in the neighbourhood, which is about 20,000 cash a pecul/ 

Mr. Baber then describes the process of pressing this 
stuff into the cakes or pao spoken of by Captain Gill. At 
Ta-Chien-Lu these cakes are cut into the portions — about 
nine inches by seven by three — which the Chinese call ch^uan^ 
or * bricks,' * containing a good deal more stick than leaf.' 
Mr. Baber corroborates Captain Gill's estimate of the extra- 
ordinary weights carried by the porters of these pao up to 
Ta-Chien-Lu, mentioning a case in which he overtook a 
somewhat slenderly built carrier freighted with 22 of the 
Ya-Chou packages, which must at the lowest computation 
have exceeded 400 lbs. in weight ! ^ 

The quantity which annually paid duty at Ta-Chien-Lu he 
calculated on good comparative data at about 10,000,000 
lbs., worth at that place ;^t6o,ooo. 

A good deal besides is smuggled in by Chinese officials, 
for it is by means of this tea that those gentlemen feather 
their nests. Of these administrators and their gains the 
Tibetans say, *They come to our country without breeks, 
and go away with a thousand baggage-yaks.' 

§ 47. Mr. Baber, like Captain Gill, speaks of the remark- 
able manner in which the British- Indian rupee has become 

' The/df^ purport to weigh each 18 catties, or 24 lbs., as Captain 
Gill states. But this, according to Mr. Baber, is when saturated. 
The theoretical weight is a good deal reduced when they are dry. 



GEOGRAPHICAL IXTRODUCTIOy, [131] 

the currency of Tibet — a circumstance of which my friend 
General Hyde was probably not aware in his endeavours to 
estimate the existing amount of current rupees for the Silver 
CoDMnittee of 1876. **Those (rupees) which bear a crowned 
presentment of Her Majesty are named Lama tob-du or 
" vagabond Lama," the crown having been mistaken for the 
head-gear of a religious mendicant' 

Before the introduction of the rupee, tea-bricks were 
used as currency (just as Marco Polo tells us that in an 
adjoining region loaves of salt were used in his time), and 
' even now in Bat'ang a brick of ordinary tea is not merely 
worth a rupee, but in a certain sense is a rupee, being 
accepted without mmute regard to weight, just like the silver 
coin, as a legal tender. Since the influx of rupees this tea- 
coinage has been very seriously debased, having now lost 25 
per cent of its original weight. The system of double 
monetary * standard is approaching its end, at any rate in 
Tibet ; for in May last the Lamas of the Bat'ang monastery, 
having hoarded a great treasure of bricks, found it impossible 
to exchange them at par, and had to put up with a loss of 
30 per cent' 

Mr. Baber has some judicious remarks as to the outlet 
for Indian tea into Western Tibet. The obstacle to this, 
as well as to the admission of European travellers, is the 
jealous hostility of the Lamas, jealous of power, jealous of 
enlightenment, jealous, above all, of their monopoly of 
trade. It is evidently a mistake to suppose that the main 
difficulty lies in Chinese aversion to open the landward 
frontier, real as that probably is. The feeling among the 
I^ma hierarchy is evidently very different from what it was 
in the days of Turner and Bogle ; and judgipg from the 

* Is it of any use to protest against the silly and ignorant use of 
this word in the sense oi pecuniary ? We constantly of late see a pay- 
ment of cash called * a monetary transaction I ' I have seen it so used, 
within these few weeks, by a clever daily paper, by a literary weekly 
paper of repute, by a respectable M. P. , and in a despatch from the 
Government of India ! Monetary surely belongs to matters of currency 
and minting^ not to money payments. Both money and monetary 
no doubt come from moneta^ but by different roads, and carrying 
different meanings. 



[132] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

reports of both Captain Gill and Mr. Cooper, their rule over 
the people is now become intolerably oppressive. 

We must not lengthen this too long discourse, but the 
temptation is great to draw upon Mr. Baber, whose reports, 
whilst they convey a remarkable amount of information, are 
full of good sense, and as diverting as any story-book ! 

One fact more, however, we must borrow, before bidding 
him a reluctant adieu ; and that is his discovery (Fortuna 
favet fortibus !) upon his last journey — see § 40 above — ot 
two singular local qualities of tea, one of which is naturally 
provided with sugar, and the other with a flavour of milk or, 
more exactly, of butter ! 

§ 48. Ta-Chien-Lu, Captain Gill's first place of halt after 
leaving Ch'eng-Tu, is a name that is becoming familiar to 
the public ear, as the Chinese gate of Tibet, on the Ssii- 
Ch'uan frontier. Politically speaking, it is more correctly the 
gate between the * regulation Province ' of Ssii-Ch'uan, and 
the Chinese 'non-regulation Province' of the Tibetan 
marches. Captain Gill has told the story of the Chinese 
etymology of the name (ii. 76, 77), quite fanciful, like 
many other Chinese (and many other non-Chinese) etymo- 
logies that find currency. The name appears from the 
Tibetan side as Tarchenton, Tazedo or Tazedeu^ Darchando^ 
and Tachindo^ and is purely Tibetan,^ meaning the con- 
fluence of the Tar and the Tsen, two streams which unite 
near the town. 

The place itself stands at a height of 8,340 feet above 
the sea-level, but the second march westward carries the 
traveller to the summit-level of the great Tibetan table-land. 
This great plateau here droops southward as far as lat. 29°, 

* The termination do is common in Tibetan names — as Ghiamdo, 
Tsiamdo— and means a confluence. For the forms above see P. 
Horace della Penna in Markham, 2nd edit. p. 314 : Pundit Nain 
Singh in y^ R. Geog. Soc, vol. xxxviii. p. 172 ; the Nepalese itin- 
eraries given by Mr. Hodgson in the J, A, S, Bengal, vol. xxv. pp. 
488 and 495 ; and another itinerary from Katmandu, given by him at 
an earlier date in the Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii. p. 513 seq. This 
last itinerary is obviously not genuine beyond Lhassa, from which it 
makes * Tazedo * only thirteen stages distant, in a beautifully cultivated 
plain, producing not only peas and potatoes, but rice and mangoes ! 
But it gives us the Tibetan name. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [133] 

and below that sends out a great buttress or lower terrace, 
still ranging 6,000 feet and upwards above the sea, which 
embraces, roughly speaking, nearly the whole of Yun-nan.^ 
In the descent from the higher to the lower terrace, and for 
a long distance both above and below the zone of most 
sudden declivity, this region of the earth's crust seems in a 
remote age to have been cracked and split by huge rents or 
fissures, all running parallel to one another from north to 
south ; for not only the valleys of those great rivers, of which 
we have said so much, but the gorges of their tributary 
streams, exhibit this parallelism.^ 

§ 49. The ethnography of the manifold tribes on the 
mountain frontier of China, Burma, and Tibet, is a subject 
of great interest, and , respecting which very little is yet 
known. We have tpuched it already in a loose way in a 
preceding paragraph regarding the tribes that look down 
upon Ssii-ch'uan, and we should be tempted to do so again 
in the region of the great rivers descending from Tibet into 
Yun-nan and Burma, but for the great scarcity of material. 
Something has been said of the Miisiis and Lisiis, two of tlie 
most prominent of these tribes, in the Memoir of Captain 
Gill, pp. [28-29]. 

Vocabularies of their languages have been sent home 
by M. Desgodins, and, though I have not seen these, 
M. Terrien de la Couperie, who has paid much attention to 
the philology of the Chinese and bordering tribes, tells me 
that the two vocabularies have 70 per cent, of words com- 
mon to both, and show a manifest connection both with 
some of the Miao-tzii tribes and with the Burmese. The 
last point is corroborated by the statement of Dr. Anderson 
regarding the Lisiis, that the similarity of the Lisii and 
Burmese languages is so great that it is hardly possible to 
iavoid the conclusion that the two peoples have sprung from 
one stock.® 

• Height of TaLli-Fn, 6,955 feet; height of Yun-Nan-Fu, 6,397 
feet; height of Tong-ch'uan, 7,152 feet, and height of Hui-li, 6,234 
feet. These heights were erroneously given in the first edition of 
this essay. 

' Gill, vol. ii. p. 228 ; infra^ p. 234. 
Anderson, u.s. 



[134] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

§ 50. Captain Gill, when at Kudeu, obtained a remarkable 
manuscript, which he has presented to the British Museum.^ 
I have seen the manuscript, but I derive the following 
account of it from M. Terrien de la Couperie, who is en- 
gaged in systematic study of the origin and relations of the 
Chinese characters, and is deeply interested in this document. 
It is written in an unknown hieroglyphic character, and con- 
sists of eighteen pages, measuring about 9^ inches by 3^. 
The characters read from left to right ; there are three lines 
on a page ; the successive phrases or groups of characters 
being divided by vertical lines. Among the characters are 
many of an ideographic kind, which have a strong resem- 
blance to the ancient Chinese characters called chuen-izu. 
With these are mixed numerous Buddhistic emblems. 

M. Terrien possesses another document in similar cha- 
racter, but less mixed with Buddhistic symbols, which was 
traced by M. Desgodins from the book of a tomba^ or sorcerer, 
among the Ndshi or Miisd, a kind of writing which that 
missionary states to have become obsolete.* He considers 
Captain Gill's manuscript to be probably much older. It is 
not possible to say whence it came, because it may have 
been an object plundered in the long disorders of the Yun- 
nan frontier. But M. Terrien is inclined to regard it as a 
survival of a very ancient ideographic system, perhaps con- 
nected with that of the Chinese in very remote times. The 
late Francis Gamier, during one of his later journeys in 
Hu-nan, was assured ^ that in certain caves in that province 
there were found chests containing books written in Euro- 
pean characters, and. judiciously suggests that these may 
have been books of the extinct aborigines, in some phonetic 
character. M. Terrien recalls this passage in connection 
with Captain Gill's manuscript. And he observes that a 
thorough study of the character, and of the dialects, for 
which we have as yet very little material, may be most im- 
portant in its bearing on the ethnographic and linguistic 

» Additional MSS. No. 2162. 

* There is a bare allusion to the subject in the book La Mission du 
Thibet, where M. Desgodins speaks * des livres de sorciers que j'ai eus 
entre les mains, mais dont je n'ai pu avoir la traduction ' (p. 333 )• 

* Bull, de la Soc, de Geog,^ January, 1874, p. 19. 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [135] 

history of ancient China. Very Ancient Chinese traditions 
speak of these races as possessing written documents.* Some 
further material has since been obtained for the investigation 
of written characters among the tribes west of Ssu-Ch'uan. 

In the transcript which we have given of Lord Aberdare's 
address mention is made of one of the most novel and in- 
teresting results of Mr. Baber^s journeys, viz., his bringing 
back specimens of documents in the written character of the 
Lolo people, with two or three imperfect vocabularies of 
their language, and the bi-script text of a. Lolo song in Lolo 
and Chinese characters. These documents were published 
by the Royal Geographical Society with the collection of 
Mr. Baber's papers referred to previously. In 1881 Mr. 
Baber was good enough to send home as a gift to the present 
writer a Lolo MS. of more elaborate character than had yet 
been available, a document probably still unique in Europe. 
When Mr. Baber was in the Lolo country, a chief had asked 
his aid in procuring a revolver. The traveller consented, and 
requested in return a Lolo book, which was promised. 
Immediately on Mr. Baber's arrival at Ch'ung-Ch'ing the 
revolver was purchased and despatched, but for three years 
nothing was heard from Lolodom, and expectation had died 
away, when this book arrived. The MS. is written with the 
Chinese hair-pencil on doubled satin, blue on one side and 
red on the other, of folio size, and consisting of eight panels 
folded like a screen. It has been ascertained that the work 
is in a syllabic character and that it partly consists of rhyming 
stanzas ; but little more is known as yet. A short account 
of the book was read at the Royal Asiatic Society on 
December 19, i88i, by M. Terrien de la Couperie, who has 
since been giving some further attention to its interpre- 
tation. 

A further and still more important contribution to the 
collection of Lolo MSS. was recently mentioned by Mr, 
Baber at the Royal Geographical Society (see * Proceedings ' 
for 1883, p. 447). This, a book bound in goatskin with the 
hair on, and containing illustrations, was obtained by Mr. 

• One recalls the tradition of the Karens, that they too once had a 
book, but a dog ate it I 



fi36j GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

Meshy in Kwei-Chou, and is deposited in the rooms of the 
China Branch, R.A.S. at Shanghai. 

§51. There must be an end to this commentary. I 
have become through circumstances, and especially through 
the traveller's friendly confidence in me, too closely associated 
with his work to put myself forward as a judge of its merits. 
But I am bound to call attention to some facts. 

Captain Gill was weighted with serious disadvantage as 
a traveller in China by his unacquaintance with the language. 
No one qould be more sensible of what he lost by this than 
he was. Yet he was singularly fortunate, during two large 
sections of his travels, in his interpreters — having the aid of 
Mr. Baber in the voyage up the Yang-Tzti, and that of Mr. 
Mesny across the Tibetan and Burmese frontier. And his 
success on a journey in which he has had no forerunner, and 
had no companion — that from Ch'^ng^Tu to the north — ■ 
shows that he carried in his own person the elements of that 
success— patience, temper, tact, and sympathy. 

The first edition of this Essay concluded with the follow- 
ing words :— 

* The anonymous writer who edited the journals of 
Augustus Margary, with so much judgment and good feeling, 
concludes his biographical sketch of the young man in words 
from which I extract the following : — 

* Whether, and how soon, his countrymen will be able to 
travel in honour and safety the route which he was the first to 
explore, will depend upon the faithfulness with which they copy 
his example. As soon as Englishmen shall be able, as he did, 
to find " the people everywhere charming, and the mandarins 
extremely civil " (p. 134) — in spite of all the serious and petty 
vexations, discomforts, and discourtesies which met him day 
after day, and which -he had to brush a'side with a firm hand, 
but without losing temper — the route will open out and become 
as safe to them as it proved to him on his lonely westward 
journey. For his short story, if read aright, and in spite of its 
violent ending, adds yet another testimony that a little genuine 
liking and sympathy for them, combined with firmness, will go 
further and do more with races of a different civilisation from 
our own, than treaties, gunboats, and grapeshot, without it. If 
the route is ever to be a durable and worthy monument of the 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, [137] 

man, it must be opened and used in his spirit, by fair means, 
and for beneficent ends. 

'These are just and admirable words, and I think all 
candid readers of this narrative will recognise that my friend 
its author has been not unworthy, tested as those words 
would have him tested, to do his part in keeping open the 
track which Margary first explored. He has done that, and 
more. And I am happy to think that he also is still young, 
and thus, as this has not been his first adventure in the con- 
quest of knowledge in distant regions, neither will it, I trust, 
be his last' 

It was not indeed his last, nor even his second last, of 
such adventures in the conquest of knowledge, though within 
little more than three years and a half after those words 
were written, William Gill had laid down his young and 
precious life on a last adventure in his country's service. 

Two journeys that have been made since Captain Gill's 
are of an importance to call for mention in this Essay, so as 
to give it more completeness up to the date of its being 
remoulded for the present edition. These are Count 
Sz^chenyi's and Mr. Colquhoun's. We can give but a very 
brief account of their journeys. 

§ 52. Count Bela Sz^chenyi, a young Hungarian noble, 
the son of a very distinguished father, after the death of his 
wife resolved on devoting himself to a journey of exploration 
and scientific investigation in Eastern or Central Asia. He 
took with him apparatus of every kind likely to be useful, and 
was accompanied by a geologist (Herr Ludwig v. Loczy), a 
surveyor (Lieutenant Gustaf Kreitner), and a linguist (Herr 
Gabriel Balint).'* The last, however, was compelled by 
illness to return from Shanghai, where the party arrived 
April 12, 1878. After an excursion to' Japan, including a 
visit to Hakodade and some examination of the Aino people 
of Yesso, and another excursion to Peking, Count Szdchenyi's 
party started on his main expedition, by proceeding up the 

^ Count Sz^henyi is understood to be still engaged in preparing 
the scientific results of his journeys. The only publication which I 
know of iregarding them is a narrative in popular form by Lieutenant 
KrcitnernnScr the name oi Im Femen Osten (Vienna, iSoi). 



[138] 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 



yarg-Tzti to Hankow, and thence up the Han River a 
its tributary the Sie-ho, to Tin-Tze-Kwan, whence they went| 
by land to the ancient and celebrated city of Si-Ngan-Fti.;] 
They were able here to visit the famous Nestorian tabie^ J 
and it appears from their account that it had not been at aQfl 
injured by the Mahommedan insurgents, as was once x^m 
ported. An inscription on the back records that more thaii'J 
twenty years before (presumably before the \'isit of t 




Hungarian party) a pious mandarin had caused the mt 
ment to be 'renovated,' and erected in the conspicL 
position which it now occupies. 

Leaving Si-Ngan-Fu, February 1. 1879, Count Sz^chenyJ 
travelled to Lan-Chou-Fu on the Yellow River, and thencel 
through Kansu, by the cities of Liang-Chou and of Kan- 
Chou and Su-Chou, so famous in the early travels to China 
from the landward side— e^. those of Marco Polo (whose 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. [139] 

Campichu and Sukchur those cities are), of Shah Rukh's 
ambassadors, and of Benedict Goes. 

Their hopes of being allowed to penetrate into Tibet 
this way were baffled, but they were permitted to visit 
Tung-Hwan-Hsien, the most advanced Chinese station in 
that direction (south of the Gobi desert), and close to which 
formerly stood Sha-Chou, the Sachiu of Marco Polo. Re- 
turning to Lan-Chou-Fu and visiting Si-Ning-Fu, they were 
equally unsuccessful in their desire to take the Lhassa road 
from Koko-Nor. The Chinese officials and the Lamas alike 
assured them that the only way they could enter Tibet was 
from Szu-Ch'uan. It is not easy to discover from Lieutenant 
Kreitner's narrative whether the party got near the shores of 
the Koko-Nor, but, if so, they merely got within sight of it. 
They, however, visited the great Convent of Kunbum where 
Hue and Gabet spent some time, and saw the sacred tree of 
which Hue tells such wonderful things. It is this tree, in 
fact {sKu-bum^ pron. Ku-hu7n^ or Kun-bum^ * the 100,000 
images '), which gives its name to the convent. The Austrian 
party were not so fortunate as Hue. 

Ascending some steps we reached the chief temple. In 
front of it, protected by a railing, stood the tree of which Abbd 
Hue relates that it is the nature of its leaves to produce the 
image of Buddha and the letters of the Tibetan alphabet. We 
sought for such phenomena in vain. No image of Buddha, no 
letter was forthcoming ; only a sarcastic smile at the corners of 
the mouth of the old priest who acted as our guide ! 

In answer to our questions as to the story of the tree, he told 
us that long ago the tree really used to bear leaves with the 
likeness of Buddha, but now the miracle appeared very seldom. 
. . . The last fortunate person was a pious mandarin who 
visited the convent seven or eight years before. 

Next day it was Count Sz^chenyi's luck to find a leaf on the 
tree, bearing a rude figure of Buddha — apparently etched with 
some acid. To pluck leaves or flowers from the tree is per- 
mitted by the Lamas to nobody. The fallen leaves are carefully 
gathered and sold to the pilgrims as a tea good for affections 
of the throat. The tree has four stems, of six or eight metres 
high, and at the time of our visit was thickly clothed with 
oblong, rounded, dark green leaves. The umbellated flowers 



[i4o] GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 

were already in bud. Anyhow, the tree belongs to the OleacecB, 
I take it for the Syringa of L. (i,e, lilac).* 

Turning south from Lan-Chou-Fu, the party travelled 
through southern Kan-su, by a route in large part not hitherto 
described, till at Mien-Chou, about thirty miles from Ch'eng- 
Tu-Fu, they fell into the route followed by Captain Gill on his 
return from his excursion from that city to Sung-Pang-Ting. 

On October 12, 1879, two years and three months after 
Gill, they started from Ch'eng-Tu, and followed in his foot- 
steps as far as Bat'ang. Here, like him, they found uncon- 
querable opposition to their taking the Lhassa road. In order 
to break new ground they travelled from Bat'ang on the east 
instead of the west side of the River of Golden Sand, rejoin- 
ing Giirs track again near Li-Kiang-Fu, and following the 
usual route from Ta-Li-Fu to Bhamb, which was reached on 
February 13, 1880. 

§ 53. Mr. A. R. Colquhounis an engineer of the Indian 
Public Works Department, whose zeal for travel seems to 
have been kindled by a journey to the Siamese-Shan State of 
Zimme, to which he accompanied a Mission from British 
Burma in 1879. Thenceforward his heart was set on more 
extensive exploration over untrodden ground ; and, after 
much consideration, he determined on an endeavour to 
make his way from South-West China acrgss the Shan States 
to Pegu. With his companion Mr. Wahab (who, on the re- 
turn voyage to England, poor fellow, sank under ailments 
produced by the fatigues of the journey), Colquhoun 
ascended the West River of Canton by boat as far as Pesb, 
where the navigation ceases, and then travelled through 
Southern Yun-nan to the frontier town of Ssu-Mao (the 
* Esmok * of Macleod, and of Captain Spry's persistent 
agitation of twelve to twenty years ago). Here their wish to 
penetrate the frontier was baffled in the usual Chinese fashion, 
and the travellers were compelled to turn northward in 
order to reach the Irawadi by the road from Ta-Li to Bhamb, 
so familiar to us in this Essay. They, however, successfully 
resisted the pressure put upon them by the mandarins to 

* Kreitner, Im Fernen Osten^ p. 708, 



GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, • [141] 

take the route travelled by Doudart de la Grde and his party 
to Yun-Nan-Fu, and followed a line of entirely new country, 
leading up the valley of the Papien River, directly upon 
Ta-Li. 

Mr. Colquhoun surveyed the whole of his route, but at 
the present moment his surveys have not been completely 
mapped. They will certainly be of great value, and his 
enterprising journey is of much interest as the first that has 
been made from sea to sea through Indo-China, in that 
latitude. The narrative has been published in t^'o volumes, 
under the name of * Across Chryse,' 1883. Mr. Colquhoun 
keenly advocates further exploration from Pegu in the direc- 
tion of the southern frontier of Yun-nan and the Shan States, 
in view to testing the practicability of a railway project in 
that direction ; and it is to be hoped that he may be enabled 
to conduct such a survey. Mr. Colquhoun's letters to the 
'Times' from Hong-Kong and Tonquin, respecting the 
march of events in the latter region during the summer of 
1883, have been of great ability and value. 

Indeed these paragraphs are closed for the press at a 
time when the eyes of the world are turned to China and 
Indo-China in connection with the ambition of the French 
Republic, which, not content with an enterprise (so hard 
to understand, so impossible to justify) aiming, so far as we 
can see, at the extirpation in Madagascar of the most 
promising shoot of new civilization and Christianity that 
the world can show, is fully resolved also (it would seem) to 
seize Tonquin. One thing we may safely prophesy, and 
that is, that the veil will never again descend on the geography 
of Indo-China, and that the game of conquest and politics 
in that region, the vicissitudes of which have been hereto- 
fore almost confined to the struggles of the obscure States 
within its bounds, will henceforth be played by powers from 
afar, and will probably influence the future of old European 
Governments, 




CHAPTER I. 

CATHAY, AND THE WAY THITHER. 

China resolved »n— Preliminary Visit lo BtrltM— Baron Ferdinand v 
Richtkofen — Marseilles, and Voyage in Ihe ' Ava' — Tie Straits 
— Chinese Practices jirst realised— Approoik to Saigen — The City 
— Hong Kong reached and quitted— Siangkai and its peculiar Con- 
veyanees— The Chinamaiis Plait— Voyage to Cki-Fu—The Chi-Fa 
Coniitnliott — 7'ke Minister Li-Htoig-Chang — Voyage to the Pii-Ho 
— Difficulties of NaiAgatiim up that River — Scenery — Arrival at 
Tien-Tsin — Carts of Northern China — 'Boy 'found — Scenes on Ihe 
Tien-Tsin Bund—Suspicious Wares. 

' Why not China ? ' 

Such were the words addressed to me by a friend I met 
in Trafalgar Square early in May 1876. 

Up to this moment I had never thought of China, and 
my notions regarding it were crude in the extreme : dim 
ideas of pigtails, eternal plains, and willow trees ; vague con- 



2 PRELIMINARY VISIT TO BERLIN, CH. 

ceptions of bird's-nest soup and puppy pies. I had never 
been particularly attracted to the country, and naturally 
replied, * Why should I go to China? ' 

At the time I gave the matter no further consideration, 
and it was with some surprise that, a fortnight later, I was 
met with the same question ; this time, however, my friend 
had some reasons to adduce, the result of which was that, 
on the 26th of June, a fine breezy morning, I stood on the 
deck of the Ostend steamer lying in Dover harbour. 

A fresh north-easterly breeze just crisped the tops of the 
waves, and a bright sun lighted up the Dover cliffs as they 
gradually merged into the mist. For the first time for many 
days, I had leisure to think, and when at last the cliffs were 
lost to view, I seemed to have launched into a new and 
unknown sea ; for whither fate would lead my steps I could 
not say : all that was definite was, that I was going to 
Peking. 

Through the kindness of Colonel Yule I was furnished 
with a letter of introduction to Baron von Richthofen, the 
greatest of modern explorers and geographers, whose long 
travels in China had made him the first authority on the 
country ; and it was to make his acquaintance that I now 
bent my steps to Berlin, where I esteemed myself fortunate 
in finding him. The week that I spent in his society passed 
only too quickly. Hour after hour he gave up his valuable 
time to me, and opened volumes from his rich store of 
information ; day by day I grew wiser ; and little by little 
true pictures of China and Chinese life formed themselves 
in my mind. During all my conversation with Baron von 
Richthofen, not one word passed his lips that was not gold 
seven times refined, not one hint was given me that did not 
subsequently prove its value ; his kind thoughts for my 
comfort or amusement were never ceasing, and his refined 
and cultivated intellect and genial manner rendered the 
recollections of my stay in the German capital some of the 
most pleasant of my life. 

Leaving Berlin, I journeyed leisurely to Marseilles, and 
on the 30th of July steamed out of harbour on board the 
* Ava,' one of the fleet of the Messageries Maritimes Com- 



I. SINGAPORE, 3 

pany. On a sea like glass we glided through the Straits of 
Bonifacio, steamed into the Bay of Naples, and left it again 
before the town was well awake. That morning's sun set 
like a ball of fire behind Stromboli. Scylla frowned, and 
Charybdis hissed, as if in impotent rage that coal and iron 
had robbed them of their terrors, and the lights of Messina 
shone awhile over the summer sea ; but one by one even 
these faded, and the last glimpse of Europe was gone from 
our view. 

A voyage is always rather tedious, and during August 
the Red Sea can hardly be considered pleasant ; the days 
went by, however, although there was but little incident to 
vary their monotony. 

Passing through the Straits of Malacca, we steamed into 
Singapore on the morning of the 26th of August, and I was 
rather disappointed with its scenery, of which I had heard 
so much. The entrance to the harbour is certainly exceed- 
ingly pretty ; there is a wonderful richness in the verdure, 
and the trees at the water's edge contrast beautifully with 
the deep red of the soil. Perhaps it is that after some days 
afloat people are always in a frame of mind to exaggerate 
the charms of the first land they see ; or perhaps it is that 
the ships being able to come within twenty or thirty yards 
of the shore, the beauties are more apparent than in other 
places. 

Government House is a fine building, on the top of a 
little hill, looking over rich green trees and green grass to 
the blue sea, the town of Singapore stretching out on one 
side along the edge of the harbour, where there is a great 
deal of shipping, and many boats. In the town there is an 
enormous Chinese population, and here for the first time I 
understood the mystery of using chopsticks. Up till now 
I had cherished the fond delusion that it was customary to 
take the rice up grain by grain ; I had sorely exercised my 
mind on the consideration of the length of time that a 
Chinaman would occupy in consuming a hearty meal. I 
was therefore much interested in watching the process. 
The bowl, something like a large tea-cup without a handle, 
is held in the left hand close underneath the chin, the chop- 

B 2 



4 SAIGON. CH. 

sticks being used as a shovel, by which the rice is pushed 
into the mouth, an extraordinary gobbling noise accom- 
panying the proceeding. The grains of rice, moreover, 
even when cooked by a Chinaman, are not invariably all 
separate, and it is easy for a skilful performer to take a good 
deal of rice between his two chopsticks. The method of 
holding the chopsticks is almost impossible of explanation, 
but the art is acquired with a very little practice, and, once 
learnt, it is not difficult to pick up the smallest grain. 

On the 29th of August we touched at Saigon, the capital 
of the French colony of Cochin China. The mouth of the 
river is rather pretty. As the steamer runs up, on the star- 
board hand are hills, about one hundred or two hundred feet 
high, covered with forest, in which there are here and there 
open patches of beautiful green grass ; the trees come down 
to the water^s edge, the coast is broken into innumerable 
little creeks and bays, native villages are scattered about, 
and on the other side the low coast is seen two miles away. 
In a very short distance the hills disappear ; the river, about 
half a mile wide, is very tortuous, and winds through a 
flat, swampy, uninteresting country, covered with low jungle, 
where I was told there were a great many tigers; but 
as Frenchmen seldom hunt savage beasts for sport, they 
probably exaggerate the number of them. 

The town of Saigon lies fifty miles up the river, and is 
close to a very large and important native town, the seat of 
ancient trade, which is inhabited in great part by a colony 
of immigrants from China. It was for commercid purposes 
necessary to establish the capital here rather than at the 
mouth of the river, where there would have been a more 
picturesque, more convenient, and far more healthy site* 
The French have certainly made more of the little that 
nature has provided them with, than we have at Singapore 
of a much better site. The principal street of the town is a 
fine broad boulevard, with trees on both sides, where there 
are a few French shops amongst those which are kept by 
Asiatics of various races. The public buildings are plain, 
and do not deserve much notice ; there are of course caf^s 
and restaurants, in as close imitation as circumstances 



I. THE ROBBER ISLANDS. 5 

permit of the gay French capital There is no gas at 
Saigon as there is at Singapore, but the streets and houses 
are well lighted with petroleum. This is said to be a 
very unhealthy place, residents being liable to a form of 
dysentery that nothing appears to cure ; the governors, 
whose salary is 8,000/., are rarely able to remain more than 
two years. We found that, with an admirable idea of how 
most to inconvenience the public, the post office was closed 
till 4.30 P.M., the officials being busy preparing their mails ; 
so we took another drive, and when we returned we found 
that the poste restante business, the selling of stamps, and 
the receipt of valuable articles, were all conducted by one 
official at one little pigeon-hole. 

People had been dropping in one by one during the past 
hour, and the street now presented something the appear- 
ance of one of our West End thoroughfares on the night 
of an entertainment, with a long string of carriages on each 
side of the road. When at length the pigeon-hole was 
opened, a crowd of Annamites, Chinamen, French soldiers, 
sailors, officials, and people of all sorts, fought for the 
services of the man inside ; we also engaged in the con- 
flict, and at length succeeded in posting our letters. Before 
returning to the ship we had t9 listen to the most doleful 
jeremiads of a sleepless night in store for us, from the size 
and virulence of the mosquitoes, with which the river was 
said to swarm ; visions of large dragon-flies, with the stings 
of scorpions, presented themselves to me as I turned in ; 
but happily the reports were exaggerations, and we none of 
us suffiered much. 

Leaving Saigon we steamed on again to the East, passing 
the Ladrone Islands, famous in the days of yore. When the 
old Portuguese navigators first entered these waters, and 
found themselves the unfortunate victims of the numerous 
pirates and murderers that cruised about among these 
narrow channels, they called this beautiful archipelago the 
Ladrone or Robber Islands. 

The times have changed, but the nature of the people is 
not much altered ; and though at a distance the fleet of 
junks, with their red sails bellying in the freshening breeze, 



6 THE JINNYRICKSHA W. CH. 

might be mistaken for mackerel boats on our own English 
shores, and though by profession the people follow the 
peaceful avocation of fishing, they are still on occasions 
robbers, pirates, or buccaneers. 

It was a delightful change at Hong Kong to pass a 
couple of days amongst kind friends ; it was refreshing, too, 
once more to see English soldiers, looking as smart as only 
English soldiers do ; and after so many weeks of walking up 
and down the deck of a ship, a real hill was a treat. But 
our time was soon up. Hong Kong gradually disappeared, 
and we sailed away again over the blue waters, where the 
extraordinary number of fishing junks formed a marvellous 
sight. All day and all night the steamer passed through 
a swarm of these vessels that seemed to fringe the whole 
coast ; at one time I counted 150 in sight in one quarter of 
the compass, and we were obliged to stop our engines two 
or three times to avoid the nets. 

My journey in the * Ava ' was drawing to a close, and on 
the morning of the 8th of September we entered the Yang- 
tzu-Chiang, or Ocean River, and soon dropped anchor off 
Shanghai. After greatly enjoying a dinner on shore, I took 
a * jinnyrickshaw,' and went off in search of the steamer 
which was to carry me to Chi-Fu. The jinnyrickshaw, an 
importation from Japan, is the usual public conveyance of 
Shanghai, and is admirably adapted for the flat country, 
where the roads are good and coolie hire cheap. In shape 
it is like a buggy, but very much smaller, with room inside 
for one person only. One coolie gets into the shafts, and 
runs along at the rate of about six miles an hour ; if the 
distance is long, he is usually accompanied by a companion 
who runs behind, and they take turn about to draw the 
vehicle. 

The jinnyrickshaw is, however, only for the rich ; for 
poor people there is another description of conveyance, the 
wheelbarrow, so well known in all the plains of China, with 
a seat at each side of one high wheel, on which the people 
sit sideways, as on an Irish car. 

Except in Shanghai, the Chinese contrive that the w^heels 
of these shall creak, for a Chinese coolie always seems to 



I. THE CHINAMAN'S PLAIT, 7 

require some noise to assist him in his work : when carrying 
a load in the usual way, by means of a split bamboo over his 
shoulder, he gives a peculiar grunt at each step, and chair- 
coolies almost always do the same thing. I was told that 
in the early days of Shanghai, the noises made by coolies 
and creaking wheels became so great as to be at last utterly 
unendurable to European nerves, and a regulation was made, 
which was at first enforced with much difficulty, forbidding 
coolies to groan, or wheels to creak, within the boundaries 
of the Concession, and imposing fines for a breach of the 
rule. Inside the settlement both jinny rickshaws and 
wheelbarrows abound. These are licensed, just as hackney 
carriages are in London ; the tariff is fixed by law, and 
licences suspended for misconduct or breach of regulations. 
On my way to the steamer, in the cool of a glorious starlight 
night, the reverie into which I had been gently soothed 
by a fragrant Manilla such as is rarely to be met with in 
England, was suddenly broken by a violent bump, and I 
awoke to the fact that one of the wheels had suddenly come 
off the jinnyrickshaw. The driver, if such an appellation 
is permissible, did not seem at all disconcerted ; he picked 
up his wheel, put it on, took a new linch-pin from some 
mysterious fold in his garment, whilst with a smart shake of 
his head he whipped the end of his pigtail into his hand. 
It was the work of a moment to unplait a little of it, break 
off a lock of his hair, and, by the light of the paper lantern 
always carried, put the tie thus improvised through the hole 
in the linch-pin. In five minutes we were off again as if 
nothing had happened, and I learnt that a Chinaman can 
find a use for anything, even for his plait. 

The plait was first imposed upon the Chinese as a badge 
of servitude by the Manchus when they took the country ; 
but the origin of the appendage has been long forgotten — 
it is now valued almost as dearly as life, and to be without 
one is considered the sign of a rebel. 

I was told that once a Chinese gentleman was riding in 
the settlement of Shanghai in a jinnyrickshaw, when he 
allowed his plait to fall over the side ; it was a long one, and 
the end was soon caught in the axle, which gradually wound 



^P THE CHI-FU CONVENTION, CH. 

it up. The poor fellow shouted to the man drawing him to 
stop, but the coolie, imagining that he was being urged to 
greater efforts, only went the faster, until the unfortunate occu- 
pant, with his plait nearly wound up to the end, and himself 
nearly dragged out of his carriage, was in a pitiable plight. 
A British sailor at this moment happened to pass that way, 
and observing the desperate predicament, with the readiness 
of resource for which nautical people are famed, he drew 
his knife and in an instant severed the plait from the China- 
man's head. He thought he had done a kindly act, but 
instead of thanks he received curses, and his life was not 
considered safe until his ship was well beyond the limits of 
the Shanghai river. 

After steaming sixty-five hours against a heavy head sea 
we dropped our anchor in the quiet harbour of Chi-Fu, the 
watering-place of Shanghai, charmingly situated on a deep 
bay, sheltered on the north by a long low spit of land end- 
ing in some low hills ; it is open to the N.E., and when the 
wind is from that quarter a heavy sea comes rolling in and 
prevents communication with the shore. To the E.N.E. are 
some rocky islands, which protect the harbour from that 
quarter; at the head of the bay is about a mile of flat 
country closely cultivated and very green ; and at the back, 
a range of hills, which run c^own to the coast on either side, 
end in picturesque bluffs. \o the west is the large and 
important Chinese town, where a fleet of quaint-looking 
junks were lying at anchor. The European quarter is small, 
containing not much more than the consulates, three hotels, 
and a few stores where European goods are sold at rather 
startling prices. Here, when the heat of Shanghai is at its 
worst, the wearied merchants find a pleasant and invigorating 
change in the fresh air and sea bathing. 

The now celebrated Chi-Fu Convention was at this time 
being arranged, and Sir Thomas Wade, H.B.M.'s Minister, 
Li-Hung-Chang, the celebrated Chinese Minister, and some 
members of the other foreign legations were here, with three 
English, two French, and one German man-of-war in the 
harbour, besides Admiral Ryder's despatch boat the * Vigilant/ 
and numerous Chinese war-vessels. I found two very fair 



I. LI-HUNG-CHANG. 9 

rooms in an hotel close to the European town ; my quarters 
faced the sea, and I could look out upon the British flag 
floating proudly from the mast of the * Audacious.' 

I .was furnished with letters of introduction to Sir Thomas 
Wade, whose reputation for hospitality has become a proverb 
in Peking. Though pressed with business, he found time 
to talk over my plans, and I can never be sufficiently grate- 
ful to him for all his kindness and cordiality. Here also I 
made the acquaintance of Mr. Carles, a consular officer, who 
subsequently became my companion in my first trip in the 
province of Pe-Chi-Li, a trip that turned out to be but an 
introduction to Chinese travel, and the precursor of a much 
longer and more serious enterprise. 

Taking a boat from the beach in front of the hotel, I 
went on board the * Chih-Li,' an American vessel of about 
1,200 tons, with the saloon and first- class sleeping accom- 
modation forward, and had an excellent view of all the 
ceremonies and displays attendant on the departure of the 
great Li-Hung-Chang, one of the most powerful men in 
China. Li rode in a covered sedan-chair, preceded by a 
man carrying an immense red umbrella ; his escort appeared 
to number about forty men, picturesque fellows in blue coats 
and red trousers, armed with rifles, and besides these there 
were some wonderful-looking men with cutlasses. The 
commander of the escort was a most unsoldierlike and 
ragged-looking person, perched on a Chinese saddle high 
above the back of an exceedingly small and abject pony. 
A battalion of infantry was drawn up near the landing-jetty, 
and about forty war-junks were anchored in a triple line 
close by. These most picturesque and old-fashioned vessels 
were armed with one gun each, and gaily decorated with an 
immense red flag, some of them having a second banner 
striped red and white. 

The Chinese steam- gunboats in the harbour were all 
* dressed,' as was the Chinese merchant steamer by which 
Li travelled. When he arrived at the quay, the battalion 
fired a salute, the Chinese steam-gunboats saluted, and the 
war-junks all let off" their pieces somewhat promiscuously. 
The magnate then stepped into a cutter, which was towed by 



10 DIFFICULTIES OF NAVIGATION, CH. 

a very small steam-launch in command of Europeans, and 
was soon alongside his vessel. The soldiers on board fired 
a salute, the whistle gave a few screeches, the anchor 
was up, and away went Li, escorted by the steam-gun- 
boats. 

The * Vigilant ' followed almost immediately, the soldiers 
marched home, the booming of the cannon ceased, the 
smoke cleared off, and as the sun descended in the western 
horizon, Chi-Fu, so lately the scene of such busy and hot 
arguments, so nearly the site of diplomatic rupture between 
England and China, seemed to throw off the garb of 
war, and, smiling pleasantly after the departing grandees, to 
wrap itself in the mantle of that peace that it had just 
given to the world. 

At half-past six on the 15th of September our anchor 
was weighed, and, as the stars came out, we steamed across 
the Gulf of Pe-Chi-Li to the mouth of the Pei-Ho, or River 
of the North, which, with its wide expanse of mud flats, 
would certainly come up to any preconceived expectations 
of dreariness ; but as Tien-Tsin is approached, although the 
country is still perfectly flat, the life, activity, and close 
cultivation around render the scenery, to say the least, 
cheerful 

Of any possible combination of annoying circumstances, 
the navigation of the Pei-Ho must be the most trying to the 
temper of a ship-captain. The river bends and winds about 
in the most exasperating manner with the sharpest tiu-ns ; 
after a straight run of perhaps a little less than a quarter of 
a mile, it becomes necessary to round a sharp bend of at 
least a semicircle ; if the bend is to the left, the bow of the 
ship is aimed straight at the bank on the starboard hand. 
All may seem to be going well, when the current probably 
catches the vessel, and, with the helm hard a-starboard, she 
runs hard and fast aground on the bank, in such a way that 
a pebble could be dropped ashore from the deck. The ship 
then sticks, and will not move ; a warp is laid out to the 
bank on the other side of the river, and the donkey-engine 
set to work. Perhaps the strain is too great, and the warp 
parts ; this has to be replaced ; the engines then are backed, 



I. ANGELIC CAPTAIN, ii 

the helm put amidships, the donkey-engine set to work 
again, the helm put hard a-starboard, and at last her head 
is got round ; she moves again and reaches the next bend, 
when just at the critical moment a junk steers between the 
steamer and the shore. The engines must be backed to 
prevent the junk being jammed between the ship and the 
bank, and in three minutes as niuch ground is lost as has 
been gained in the last half- hour Now the steamer touches 
a bank in the middle of the river ; the current, running like 
a mill-race, slews her round right across the stream, and 
stops all navigation. Under these circumstances the captain 
seemed to me to exhaust the whole of his nautical vocabu- 
lary. Once we pulled the warping-post out of the bank ; 
once, in passing a great junk, whose anchor was laid out in 
a millet field, our wash was so strong that, taking her broad- 
side on, she tore her anchor adrift and went afloat on her 
own account Under similar circumstances the swearing of 
English sailors would have been terrible, but the worthy 
Chinese seemed to take it in the day's work, and, laughing 
all the time, quietly laid their anchor out afresh ; although I 
must admit that I subsequently found the swearing powers 
of the Chinese sailors to be in no way inferior to the capa- 
bilities of our troops in Flanders. From two p.m. until 
seven o'clock in the evening our captain struggled manfully 
with the twists and turns, when at last we ran so hard 
aground that with a falling tide no more could be done that 
night 

The captain must have been possessed of an angelic 
temper. He never said a single word except to give his 
orders in a quiet voice, but at the most aggravating moments, 
when most people would have used bad language, he would 
violently chew the end of his cigar, and by this means relieve 
his feelings. We all retired early, and it was well for us 
that we did so ; for at about four o'clock next morning the 
donkey-engine began to work. There was no more sleep 
for aAy one, and as we lay awake we could hear the captain's 
continued commands — starboard, port a little, &c. &c., and 
the same heart-breaking process was continued as we worked 
^lowly up. 



12 ARRIVAL AT T/EN-TS/N. CH. 

The morning broke, giving hopes of a lovely day that 
were by no means belied, and at eight o'clock we thought 
that we should breakfast at Tien-Tsin. There was only one 
more bend in the river, but that a very difficult one, and it 
seemed as if the vessel's head never would come round. 
No sooner had she come up half a point than she would 
viciously shoot forward a few yards, an eddy would suddenly 
take hold of her bow, and she would fly right off ; at last, a 
tug coming down the river gave us a friendly pull, and we 
were safely round the last point. The command was given, 
full speed ahead — Tien-Tsin was but two miles off. The 
captain threw away the end of his cigar, and for the first 
time did not light another. We all began to prepare for 
going ashore, as the ship sped gaily on up the straight reach, 
when suddenly she ran on to a bank in the middle of the 
river, and, as the tide had now fallen too low, all the 
captain's efforts to get her off were unavailing. We de- 
scended to breakfast at nine o'clock, and afterwards, as the 
distance was so short, most of us went off in a boat to the 
bank, where landing in the mud was a matter of some 
difficulty. It was accomplished, however, with nothing 
worse than muddy shoes, and we walked to the British 
Consulate. 

The journey from Tien-Tsin to Peking of a minister 
who is taking as his guests two admirals with their suites 
is a very serious matter ; and I thought to myself that the 
British Legation must be a very elastic building to accom- 
modate so many ; but where a Minister is of such a royally 
hospitable nature as Sir Thomas Wade, difficulties soon 
disappear. 

Sir Thomas and some of his guests were going by boat 
to Tung-Chou, whence a short ride would land them in the 
Legation. These river boats are long, flat-bottomed affairs, 
with houses on the stern, which a good travelling servant 
knows how to make fairly comfortable in a very short time. 
In cold weather the chinks must be covered with paper, but 
^t this season it was unnecessary. One boat is usually kept 
as kitchen and dining-room, and at stated hours the different 
boats come together for meals. The vessels are mostly 



I, CHINESE CARTS. 13 

tracked against the stream by ropes made fast to the head 
of the mast, which is right in the bows ; but if there is a fresh 
fair wind, they sail In this manner the journey to Tung- 
Chou occupies from three to four days. 

Another method of travelling is with carts, which per- 
form the journey from Tien-Tsin to Peking in two days, 
unless the traveller prefers making three shorter stages ; but 
the jolting and bumping of these springless carts over the 
rough tracks cannot be imagined by those who have never 
travelled but in carriages with springs over the made roads 
in England, and is really so unpleasant that this system 
would hardly commend itself to any one who was a good 
walker, and, by using his legs, could save his bones from 
being sorely bruised. The Chinese travel a great deal 
in this manner, and the Chinese ladies sit cramped and 
cooped up all day long with wonderful patience and en- 
durance. ' European ladies, too, sometimes make long 
journeys in these carts ; and though, perhaps, accustomed 
to all the luxuries of Western civilisation, put up with the 
discomfort attendant on a journey of this kind with a pluck 
that is delightful to witness. 

One mule is generally put into the shafts and another as 
leader ; the traces of the latter are both attached to the 
off-side of the body of the cart, passing through a steel ring 
six inches in diameter fastened near the end of the off-shaft. 
This ring is always polished up in a way that would refresh 
the heart of a captain of field artillery, and the carters keep 
their equipment altogether in first-rate order. The reins are 
generally of rope, very light— indeed, in China the lightness 
of the harness, in which strength and durability are quite 
sufficiently considered, is a remarkable contrast to the heavy 
and useless leather- work with which we in England load our 
horses. 

One hundred //, or thirty-three miles, is considered an 
average day's journey, and when sufficient inducement is 
held out to the carters, the way in which their carts will day 
after day complete these long stages over the most trying 
roads — sometimes deep in mud, at others through heavy 
sand, or in the mountains, up and down severe and rocky 



14 BOYS AND PONIES. CH. 

gradients, where the ground is often strewn with huge stones 
and boulders — is very starthng to any one who has been 
accustomed to the slow and short marches of carts in 
India. ^ 

It was a long business, getting everything ready for the 
large party of the minister, admirals, and suites. All the 
luggage was in the * Chih-Li,' hard and fast on a mud bank 
two miles down the river. Somebody had to find a steam- 
launch and go down after it ; boats were to be hired, pro- 
visions bought, and all sorts of arrangements to be made ; 
but nevertheless, some of my newly made friends found 
time to come and help me in my affairs. I had now to 
discover a servant and to buy ponies. 

The word * boy,' as apphed to a servant, has been trans- 
planted with curry and rice, punkahs, compounds, godowns, 
and tiffins into China, and the word * servant ' is scarcely 
ever used amongst Europeans at the Treaty Ports, In this 
capacity I engaged a native of Peking, Chin-Tai, whose 
name will often recur in these pages ; and two ponies 
were eventually bought for forty dollars each, after the 
amount of mysterious bargaining usual in all countries. 

There are numbers of ponies to be hired on the wharf, 
and on these the British sailors gallop wildly up and down 
the streets in the English settlement. Furious riding is as 
strictly prohibited here as it is in Rotten Row, but the 
prohibition is not quite so severely enforced. A couple of 
tars, just in harbour after a long sea voyage, will step ashore, 
and hiring each a pony, without stopping to critically 
examine the animals or their saddlery, will jump up and go 
off at full gallop, the proprietor sometimes running behind. 
Jack has probably no socks, and only a pair of shoes, so 
that the stirrup-iron catches his bare instep ; but of this he 
takes little notice, nor of his trousers, which ruck up a long 
way above his knees. All goes well until the pony comes to 
a familiar corner, where, notwithstanding that Jack puts his 

» Richthofen states that the journey from Si-Ngan-Fu to Hi (Kuldja), 
2,673 miles, is performed as a matter of course by two mule-carts, carrying 
three and a half tons, in eighty stages, though practically more than eighty 
days are required, for the journey. 



I. DOLLARS AND GUNPOWDER, 15 

helm hard a-port, the pony turns sharp round to the left, 
Jack falls overboard, the pony gives one kick of its heels, 
and gallops off to its home. Not in the least disconcerted, 
Jack jumps up behind his mate, who, on seeing the accident, 
has brought up all standing, and away they go again until 
the second pony manages to relieve itself of its double 
burden. 

At last, at about 6.30 in the evening, the * Chih-Li ' suc- 
ceeded in getting off the mud bank and reaching the wharf ; 
so taking Chin-Tai on board, I pointed out my innumerable 
packages to him, and let him bring them to my rooms. 
This being finished, I went out to get some money. 1 
found that the letter of credit I had provided myself with 
was more useful than circular notes would have been. It 
is not only in China that I have found this to be the case, 
and I mention it for the benefit of any who may be con- 
templating an expedition into out-of-the-way places. The 
money current here, as at Shanghai, is the American dollar. 
It is somewhat surprising that the use of a coin of fixed 
value has as yet penetrated so short a distance beyond the 
Treaty Ports, more especially as bank-notes are an ancient 
institution in China. A very few miles from the main road 
between Peking and Tien-Tsin, the dollar is of no use what- 
ever, and recourse must be had to the cumbersome method 
of weighing out lumps of silver. For small change, the 
brass cash are universal : these are round coins with a 
square hole in the middle ; there are some Chinese charac- 
ters on them, and they vary in value from about one-tenth 
to one-fifteenth of an English penny, according to the 
exchange. 

The next thing I had to do was to discover, and secure 
if possible, my guns and cartridges. Before leaving England 
I had been led to believe that almost wherever I went in 
China I should find birds and beasts of every description 
only waiting to be shot at, and I had provided myself with 
cartridges and firearms in proportion. These had been 
despatched by an agent in London direct to Tien-Tsin, but 
where they were I had as yet no conception ; so I made the 
tour of all the foreign * Hongs,' as the Europeans call their 



j6 CUSTOMS AND MANNERS, CH. 

business establishments in China, and eventually found that 
my artillery was in the custom house, where it had caused 
much speculation. 

At all the Treaty Ports the higher custom house officials 
are foreigners (mostly Englishmen) in the pay of the Chinese 
Government, and thus, as a rule, a European traveller has 
no difficulty about clearing his goods. In this instance, 
however, a number of cases, contents unknown, and con- 
signed to nobody in particular, had suddenly arrived for an 
unknown person. They naturally drifted to the custom 
house, where, as naturally, they were opened by inquisitive 
Chinese, who suddenly discovered a very remarkable amount 
of gunpowder. This at once conjured up in the minds of 
the Chinese officials all sorts of fearful plots against the 
Imperial Government ; an embargo was laid on the goods ; 
and when at last I appeared to claim my property, I was 
introduced to a very polite French gentleman, who lectured 
me severely on the wickedness of which I had been guilty 
in sending out guns and cartridges without consigning them 
to some proper person ; but who, at the same time, com- 
forted me with the assurance that they would in all proba- 
bility be handed over to me in the course of a few months. 
Thanks, however, to the English Consul, I at last rescued 
my artillery from the customs without much difficulty, and, 
after a final dinner at the Consulate, turned into bed ready 
for my first experiment in Chinese travelling. 



17 



CHAPTER II. 

THE CITY OF CAMBALUC^ 

Departure from Tien-Tsin — Rural Characteristics — Pictures by the 
Way — Chinese Hostelry — The ^ Kang^ : Fittings and Furniture — 
Approach to Peking — Foreigners as seen by Chinese eyes — The British 
Legation — Visit to the Temple of Hem-en — A Chinese Fair — 
Crambe Repetita — Chinese Dinners — Visit to the Summer Paicue — 
Needless Havoc— Great Bell — Modem Cambaluc, 

After an early cup of tea we started at 6 a.m. on the 20th 
of September. A Ma-Fu (or horse-boy) rode in front on a 
very good iron-grey pony, in shape and size something Hke 
my own. The Ma-Fu had nothing on his head but his 
plait ; he wore a loose blue coat padded with cotton-wool, 
and loose blue cotton trousers, and he rode on a Chinese- 
made English saddle. I rode next on a saddle that I had 
brought with me from England, with large flax-cloth saddle- 
bags and leather wallets. These saddle-bags proved ex- 
cellent, and, if my experience is worth anything, good 
flax-cloth saddle-bags will last quite as long as any traveller 
can need ; they are much more convenient and far lighter 
than leather ones, which latter become very awkward in 
rainy weather, but the seams should be lined inside with a 
strip of leather half an inch wide. At this season of the 
year in Northern China the sun has lost its power, and a 
helmet is not necessary. A white English felt hat, Norfolk 
jacket, breeches and gaiters, completed my costume. 

My three baggage-carts came next, in one of which 
Chin-Tai reposed as comfortably as circumstances would 
permit. 

At length we were clear of the town, and breathed the 

* The name by which Marco Polo designates Peking. 

C 



?> 



1 8 LANDSCAPES. cH. 

fresh country air. The Ma-Fu, who knew nearly twenty 
words of English, took me under his care, and, leaving the 
carts to find their slow way behind us, we rode on ahead. 
The country here is quite flat, without an elevation of the 
smallest description except the houses and river embank- 
ment. Behind the latter, masts and sails of hundreds of 
junks can be seen. Every inch of the ground is cultivated 
with millet or Indian corn, and in the fields there is fre- 
quently an undercrop of sweet potato or a small bean. 
Cotton and castor-oil plants often border the edges of the 
fields ; but the great feature is always the millet, standing 
about eight feet high, with reddish-brown or yellow stalks. 
The immediate neighbourhood of Tien-Tsin is not well 
wooded, but a little further into the country the villages 
have more trees about them, almost entirely willows and 
Chinese dates. These latter (in reality the Rhamnus 
Theezans, a kind of buckthorn or jujube, in no way what- 
ever allied to the date-palm) bear a fruit in appearance and 
taste very like a small date ; the tree itself is more like an 
olive than anything else, and is very common in Northern 
Persia about the neighbourhood of Sharood. 

A few miles on, the road skirts large plantations of 
willows, and the landscape is very like the scenes in some 
of the pictures of Karl du Jardin. In the Dresden Gallery 
there is rather a stiff picture by this artist of a grove of trees, 
with a herd of swine underneath. Now, not far from Tien- 
Tsin, this landscape is reproduced almost exactly j there is 
the identical row of willow-trees in a perfectly straight line, 
and all of precisely the same height ; and, as I passed, the 
very same herd of swine was feeding underneath — the only 
thing wanting to make it complete was the gay cavalier out 
hunting. 

After a ride of about twenty miles I arrived with the 
Ma-Fu at Yang-Tsun, the first halting- place, and here for 
the first time I made acquaintance with the luxuries of a 
Chinese inn. Riding through an archway, with a room on 
each side used as a sort of restaurant, there is an open court- 
yard. On one side of it there is what in England would be 
called a long low hut, divided into several rooms : these 



II. A CHINESE HOSTELRY, 19 

are the sleeping apartments of the guests at the hotel ; on 
the other side a large open shed is the stable or feeding- 
place for the horses and mules. At the farther end of the 
yard is the best room of the establishment, which is only 
awarded to guests of distinction — or, in other words, to those 
who can afford to pay. 

Knowing nothing of the arrangements, I went, where I 
was shown, into one of the little rooms at the side, about 
ten or eleven feet square, and the same in height, the floor 
of brick and the walls of mud. Dirty paper, with many 
holes in it, pasted over the rafters formed the ceiling, and 
some wooden lattice-work, covered with dirty paper full of 
holes, did duty for a window. 

The great feature in every room in every inn in Northern 

China is the*kang.' This is a hollow raised dais, about 

eighteen inches high, covering half the floor, over which 

there is usually laid a bit of thin straw matting, the home of 

innumerable fleas. In the winter a fire is lighted under this, 

and through the bricks or mud of which it is built a pleasing 

warmth is imparted to the traveller, who, rolled up in his 

blanket, lies on it to sleep. During the day-time a little table 

about nine inches high stands on the kang ; a person sitting 

on the latter can just make use of this by twisting himself 

round into an impossible attitude, which after any length of 

time eventuates in aches all over the back. There may be 

in addition a broken-down and exceedingly filthy table and 

arm-chair, about the height of ordinary European articles : 

the chair very clumsy, heavy, stiff", straight -backed, and 

uncomfortable, with legs which, thrust out in a sprawling 

fashion, seem to have the most unhappy knack of being 

always in the way ; and the table with a ledge underneath 

just where an ordinary person wants to put his knees, and a 

bar below to interfere with the free movements of his feet. 

In some of the larger inns of the important towns things are 

better done, doors and window-frames being to a certain 

extent fitted ; but even in the best there is generally a big 

hole under the door, where the mud and bricks have been 

gradually kicked away. A window that will open is very 

rare in Chinese houses, and the doors are invariably fastened 

c 2 



so CHINESE DOORS. ch. 

with a sliding latch. I do not recollect ever to have seen a 
door fastened on any other system, or hung in any other 
way, than with a couple of pivots, one above and one below, 
each fitted into a socket ; sometimes a hole in the floor is 
snbstituted for the lower socket 

Such is the accommodation and such the furniture a 
traveller invariably meets with in the inns of China. In the 
course of an hour my carts appeared. Chin-Tai was sorely 
indignant with the innkeeper for not having put me into 
the place of honour, and his contempt for a Ma-Fu who 
could care so little for his master's dignity was delightful 
to witness. 



^ 



o 



nfctoti 



Another ride of twenty miles brought us, late in the 
evening, to the inn at Ho-Se- Wu, the half-way stage to Peking. 
With my saddle-bags for a pillow I was soon sound asleep, 
and did not wake till Chin-Tai appeared with the carts and 
said that it was time for dinner. 

Chin-Tai early discovered a weakness for cookery that 
subsequently proved very troublesome ; he never could be 
brought to understand that something to eat as soon as 
possible after arrival was better than an elaborate meal in the 
middle of the night Once produced, however, my dinner 
was soon despatched, the mattress was laid on the kang, and 
at about midnight I was fairly in bed. 



II. APPROACH TO PEKING, 21 

The carts were hired only for the journey to Peking, 
and it was therefore the interest of the driver to get there as 
soon as possible. The gates of the city are always closed at 
sundown, and as no power on earth can then get them open 
till the next morning, there was no fear of the carters starting 
late. The people of Northern China are all, however, very 
early, and when after a cup of tea a start was effected at 
3.45 A.M. the town was all astir, many of the shops were 
open, and the furnace of a blacksmith cast a bright glare 
across the street as the sound of his hammer resounded in 
the clear morning air. Leaving the carts to follow, we 
started as soon as the ponies were fed. Riding still over 
the flat plains, the distant blue mountains presently came in 
sight, and soon afterwards the unmistakable walls of Peking,^ 
with the great high three-storied building over the gate. 

To-day there was some sort of fair going on in the city, 
and the spectacle was very remarkable — quite unlike any- 
thing to be seen elsewhere. The street was very wide, and 
on each side were the same wretched houses that so soon 
become familiar to the traveller in China. Between them 
the space was closely covered by the wares that the sellers 
of goods had spread out on the ground : old clothes, old rags, 
brushes, baskets, string, rope, eatables, drinks, fruit, crockery, 
and almost every conceivable article of household equip- 
ment, were exhibited for sale ; each seller was surrounded 
by a mob of buyers, their friends, and lookers on. The 
streets were absolutely thronged with people walking, riding, 
or in carts ; the hubbub and confusion were appalling, and 
progress at times seemed almost impossible. Pigs and dogs 
took their usual share in the proceedings, and evil smells 
were not absent The inhabitants of Peking, and of all the 
towns and villages along the road from Tien-Tsin, have seen 
so many foreigners that a European causes little remark ; 
here they were mostly too busy with their buying and selling 
to pay much attention to anything else, and, with the excep- 
tion of a few people who must have come in from the 
country, and who could not help laughing at the comical 

• In Chinese, Pei-Ching, i,e. the northern capital. So also Nan- 
Ching (commonly called Nanking), the southern capital. 



22 THE BRITISH LEGATION. CH. 

sight, no one took much heed of the Englishman moving 
slowly in the motley crowd. To a Chinaman's eyes a 
Western is as hideous and strange as a Chinaman at first is 
to ours ; to his mind our clothes are not only uncouth and 
uncomfortable, but indecent ; and to his ideas a light-haired 
being is diabolic — indeed the very animals seem to share 
this belief. A story is told of a red-haired, red-bearded 
Englishman who one day was walking in a country place ; 
meeting a cart, the animals were so frightened by the extra- 
ordinary apparition, that they started, and upset the vehicle 
into a ditch. The Anglo-Saxon good-naturedly went to 
assist in setting matters straight, when the carter entreated 
him to get out of sight as soon as he could, as his awful 
appearance only terrified the animals the more. 

We threaded our intricate way through the mazes of the 
fair for very nearly a mile, when, turning out of it into a by- 
street, a smart canter brought us at 4.45 p.m. to the gate of 
the British Legation, which stands in grounds sufficiently 
extensive to contain the minister's private residence and 
state reception rooms, chancery, houses for three secretaries, 
a doctor, and an accountant, quarters for ten students, a 
church, fives-court, bowling-alley, reading-room, and billiard- 
room. 

Two large stone lions guard the entrance to the minister's 
house, and, passing between these, the first building is 
reached. This is nothing more than an empty ante- 
chamber, with a garden beyond, where there are a few trees ; 
at the other side of this there is a second antechamber, with 
a suite of two or three rooms on each side ; and, finally, 
traversing another garden, the door of the minister's resi- 
dence is gained. 

This was built by a former emperor for his son. There 
is no upper story, but the rooms are lofty, and beautifully 
decorated in the Chinese style, very different from anything 
European ; the harmony with which, in the deep dark 
shadows, a brilliant lapis-lazuli blue will mingle with an 
emerald green is at first rather startling to an eye educated 
in the principles of modern high art. 

An excursion to the Great Wall, and to the sea-coast, 



II. THE TEMPLE OF HEA VEN. 23 

through the interminable plains, among filthy though pictu- 
resque villages inhabited by a good-humoured population, 
need not be here recounted. The pleasant society of Mr. 
Carles, and his familiar acquaintance with the native 
manners and language, were advantages which cannot be 
overestimated, and the five weeks' journey * athwart the flats 
and rounding gray' was a useful prelude and preparation for 
the more serious work to follow. 

The days slipped by very pleasantly in Peking. During 
my stay a large party paid a visit to the Temple of Heaven, 
one of the sights of this metropolis. After riding through 
the foul streets, in which the smells and the dust impressed 
one most, we reached the Temple. The grounds are square, 
and enclosed by walls about half a mile long, where the 
fresh-mown grass is shaded by long straight rows of yews 
and laburnums. It is one of those places almost impos- 
sible to describe, and leaves upon the mind confused ideas 
of grandeur and utter ruin — recollections of wonderful 
blue encaustic tiles, and marble stairs, with rank weeds 
growing between the slabs — visions of elegant bridges, and 
rich but broken carvings — vivid impressions of a general 
covering of dirt and filth, and the surprise of a patch of 
kitchen garden in an unexpected corner. 

The emperor comes here at certain times to pray, and 
on these occasions, after a bullock has been made a burnt- 
offering, he should pass the night sitting upright in a stiff 
and straight-backed chair ; but the attendants naively ex- 
hibited the luxurious bed for which his Imperial Majesty 
vacates the uncomfortable arm-chair, and they had no hesi- 
tation in admitting that economy was now strictly carried 
out — that the flesh of the animal was sold, and nothing burnt 
but the skin and bones. Familiarity with Celestial affairs 
seems to have bred contempt in the minds of the servants 
about the place, for they were liberal in their offers of bricks, 
tiles, or bits of glass, of which touiists are generally so fond. 
I did not load myself very heavily, and trusted to my 
memory rather than my pockets to carry away souvenirs of 
the Temple of Heaven. 

Men from the bazaars used to bring to the Legation 



24 A CHINESE FAIR. CH. 

great piles of embroidery to tempt the unwary ; costly furs 
of every description used to cover the floor of my room ; 
old curios, and modern shams, bits of bronze worth almost 
their weight in gold, and marvels of ancient porcelain, were 
displayed in lavish profusion. But better than all were the 
newspapers and letters. I had not received a letter since 
leaving Europe, as I had travelled from Marseilles to Peking 
with one mail, and had left the northern capital before the 
arrival of the next. 

A morning was spent in those quaint dark shops in the by- 
streets of Peking, and an afternoon in one of the regular fairs. 

This was an amusing sight, and very like a European 
fair. There are stalls where every description of cheap 
trifles is sold, and nothing expensive is to be found. 
Children's toys, dolls, clay models of spiders, grasshoppers, 
and all sorts of insects ; groups of men, women, and 
children, cleverly modelled in clay, and highly characteristic ; 
ribbons and bits of finery for the women, pipes and chopsticks 
for the men. Then there are the eating-stalls, where divers 
savoury dishes are prepared, and the hot-potato men and 
the sweetmeat-sellers offer their attractive goods. Pigeons 
too are sold in great numbers, for the Chinese are great 
pigeon-fanciers. And in every corner there is a surging 
crowd of people, laughing, pushing, buying, or selling ; the 
sellers calling out the virtue of their wares, and begging 
people to come and buy ; the purchasers bargaining, and 
chaffering — and all enjoying themselves thoroughly. 

One evening we had a Chinese dinner in the most 
famous of the Peking restaurants, the * Restaurant of Virtue 
and Prosperity.' 

I shall not attempt to describe a Chinese dinner, for 
although the subject may be of a nature to present some 
amusing details for a European, yet, as the humorous Abb^ 
observes : * These details are so well known that we should 
fear to abuse the patience of the reader. We have besides 
remarked in the * Melanges Posthumes ' of Abel-Remusat, the 
following passage, which would quite suffice to dissipate the 
idea, if ever it possessed us, of giving a nomenclature of the 
dishes which were served to us ; 



II. CRAMBE REPETITA, 25 

* " Some years ago, on the return of a European embassy 
from China, where the officers composing it had not found 
much to boast of in the success of their mission, it came 
into their heads to offer to the readers of the Gazette an 
account of a dinner that had been given them, they said, by 
the officials of some frontier town. According to their 
account never had guests been more sumptuously regaled ; 
the quality of the dishes, the number of courses, the play- 
acting during the intervals, all had been carefully arranged, 
and furnished a magnificent example. To those who were 
in the habit of reading old books there seemed something 
familiar in the account of that dinner. More than one 
hundred years before the time of these officers, certain 
Jesuit missionaries had partaken of precisely the same 
repast, composed of exactly the same dishes, and served in 
the same style. But there are many people for whom every- 
thing is new, and although it is certain, ^qu'un diner re- 
chauffi ne valut jamais rien^ this rechauffe at all events was 
found excellent, and the public, always greedy for peculi- 
arities of customs, and even for the details of cookery, did 
not trouble itself as to who had been the real diners. It was 
pleased with the singularities of the Chinese service, as well 
as with the gravity with which the guests, in eating rice, 
executed manoeuvres and evolutions which would have done 
honour to the best-drilled regiment of infantry."' ^ 

If now I should present our bill of fare I should be 
suspected of having dined with, or of plagiarising, Mrs. 
Brassey ! 

Gelatine is the foundation of every delicacy that forms 
part of a high-class Chinese dinner. Swallow's-nest soup, 
shark's fins, sea-slugs, and sea- weed are nearly pure gelatine. 
For flavour, the Chinese seem to know but duck and pork ; 
and the succession of gelatinous foods, flavoured the first 
with duck and the next with pork, is tedious in the extreme. 
European wines are utterly out of place with a Chinese 
dinner, and even the most conservative Englishman will find 
that hot rice-wine, with a bouquet of rose-water, sipped from 
cups not much larger than thimbles, is preferable to the 

* Hue, V Empire Ckinois, vol. i. chap. v. 



26 A CHINESE DINNER. CH 

driest vintage of Heidsick, or the rarest cuvee of Lafitte. A 
European generally finds the first Chinese dinner he eats 
very good, the second indifferent, and the third nasty. The 
restaurant-keepers at Peking, Shanghai, and Macao doubtless 
invent fantastic dishes utterly unknown to an ordinary 
Chinaman, in order to satisfy the well-known English love 
of the marvellous. At all events, it would be as fair to judge 
of an Enghsh household dinner from a Greenwich feast, 
as it would be to consider one of these made-up and elabo- 
rate entertainments a type of a Chinese gentleman's usual 
meal. 

But even of that, as well as of the diversified and lengthy 
repasts served up in these restaurants visited at intervals by 
curious Europeans, it may be said with tenfold the force 
with which the remarks may be applied to a Greenwich 
banquet, that *the appetite is distracted by the variety of 
objects, and tantalised by the restlessness of perpetual 
solicitation, not a moment of repose, no pause for enjoy- 
ment ; eventually a feeling of satiety without satisfaction, 
and of repletion without sustenance ; till at night gradually 
recovering from the whirl of the anomalous repast, famished 
yet incapable of flavour, the tortured memory can only recall 
with an effort that it has dined off'* gelatine and grease ! 

I have heard it said that the Chinese use paper pocket- 
handkerchiefs. This, however, is not the case ; but the idea 
may have originated in the little squares of paper that are 
laid beside each diner, and are used for wiping the chopsticks 
after partaking of any dish — for one pair of chopsticks must 
serve for the whole dinner. 

The ruins of the Summer Palace, about ten miles from 
Peking, are very beautiful in the sadness of their desolation. 
One seems to be brought here face to face with the wreck of 
an empire. The builders of this palace seem to have been 
imbued with something of the spirit of those who in the 
middle ages raised in Europe such noble monuments of 
their devotion and piety. The whole soul of a man must 
have been in the work ; no part was neglected, no money, 
time, or labour spared ; infinite care was bestowed on every 

* Coningsby. 



II. THE SUMMER PALACE, 27 

detail — and, notwithstanding the desolations and ruin, there 
still seems to breathe over all the spirit of a master mind. 
Roaming about the palaces now overgrown with weeds, or 
looking out on that still lake whose mirror-like surface must 
have reflected so many and such curious sights, one cannot 
help feeling that the architect must have had a faith in 
something, even if it were only in the possibility of complete 
human happiness. 

In the Wang-Tua-Shan enclosure there are now only two 
buildings left standing— one a beautiful little pagoda of red, 
yellow, green, and blue tiles ; the other a temple in the same 
style at the top of the hill. Both were originally covered 
with porcelain figures of Buddha ; but now the heads have 
been chipped off from all within reach, and in some places 
there are great cavities where people have been trying to 
extract whole tiles. It is very humiliating to see the greedy 
way in which Europeans chip off the figures that in their 
mutilated state can be of no possible utility, and are not by 
themselves in any way ornamental. 

Surely the Chinaman cracking his water-melon seeds is 
at least as dignified as the wandering European desecrating 
shrines with his vulgar name, or destroying beautiful monu- 
ments, for the sake of glorifying himself in the eyes of his 
gaping country cousins, by the exhibition of a tile or the 
head of a Buddha ! 

Here, too, it would seem to be unnecessary to carry any 
further the cruel work of demolition, for, by groping in the 
heaps of rubbish that litter the place, amongst dust and 
stones and broken tiles, our party found plenty of relics, 
some of which, terra-cotta tiles with raised figures of 
Buddha on one side and an inscription in three languages 
on the other, were at least as valuable curios as bits knocked 
off a building. 

The parks in which the palaces stand enclose many 
acres, interspersed with hills, some real and some artificial, 
looking over lovely lakes, where there are inlets spanned 
by elegant arched bridges. Standing on the crest of the 
highest of these hills, the barrier of the mountains that 
buttress the Mongolian plateau is seen to the north ; whilst 



28 THE GREAT BELL, CH. 

to the south the eye roams over the wide and rich alluvial 
plain, dotted with villages and trees, the walls of Peking in 
the distance showing sharp and clear through that crisp, 
dry, frosty air. 

Here there were no noisy tourists to disturb reflection ; 
no gabbling cicerone with his automatic tongue ; and 
mournful though it must be to think of what has been and 
what now is, it is with difficulty that at length one tears 
oneself away from the scene, at once so fair and sad. 

The last emperor ordered the palaces to be rebuilt. 
The ministers scraped together a small sum of money, and 
began to mend the roads and repair the walls ; but the 
emperor dying soon afterwards the works were stopped. 

On our way home we visited the * Bell Temple,' where 
there is a bronze bell, eleven feet in diameter, fourteen and 
a half feet high, and about four inches thick. It is said to 
be the largest bell in the world that is hung. From rough 
measurements I calculated the amount of bronze in it at 
300 cubic feet ; this would make its weight about 160,000 lbs. 

The bell is covered, inside and out, with Chinese 
characters, all of which are close together, and none more 
than half an inch long. It is said that the characters were 
cast on the bell, but this seems almost impossible. The 
whole inscription is a prayer for rain ; and during a drought 
the princes and chief ministers come to this temple and pray 
for rain, remaining on their knees until the prayers are 
answered — a duty which they perform much as the emperor 
does his at the Temple of Heaven. 

It is said that the tones of the bell are supernatural, and 
have the power of bringing rain. This superstition in all 
probability rests on a substratum of fact, for the vibrations 
of this mass of metal may cause the precipitation of rain 
from an overcharged cloud, just as the report of a cannon 
will sometimes bring on a threatening shower. 

The largest bell in the world is that of Moscow, but this 
still rests on the ground, and has never been hung. It is 
nineteen feet high, with a circumference of sixty-three feet 
eleven inches at the rim, and its weight is computed at 
443,772 lbs. Bells are usually cast with approximately the 



II. MODERN CAMBALUC, 29 

same proportions ; a bell of the same shape and proportions 
as the Moscow bell, with the height of the Peking bell, 
would weigh 177,534 lbs. My rough calculation, as just 
stated, makes it 160,000 lbs., and it is not likely to be less. 

' What is Peking like ? ' was a question that I knew I 
should often be a^ed on my return to England, and I de- 
termined that I would, if possible, be able to answer it ; but 
the more I saw, the more hopeless seemed the task. I took 
a note-book out one day to try and write down what there 
was to be seen, but, as I began the task, I was nearly 
knocked down by a camel lumbering along with a load of 
brick tea. 

I remarked to a friend, an old resident, that nothing but 
a series of coloured pictures or photographs could ever give 
an idea of Peking as it is : * No,' he replied ; * and even then 
you would not get the stinks.' 

As in old Marco's time, the streets are straight and wide, 
and the plots of ground on which the houses are built are 
still four square. There are many open spaces inside the 
walls, large gardens, and trees. But its grandeur seems to 
be gone ; and if the old Venetian were now to return, the 
only part of his description that he would still adhere to 
would be that * it is impossible to give a description that 
should do it justice.* There are still extensive remains of 
drains, but their place has long been taken by open sewers 
in some of the streets. The smells that pervade the city at 
all seasons of the year are abominable, and the black dust 
that sweeps in clouds about the streets is probably the most 
filthy in the world, not excepting even that of London. In 
dry weather, this dust lies deep in all the streets, and in wet 
it is turned to a horrible black mire. 



30 CH. 



CHAPTER III. 

A CYCLE OF CATHAY. 

Cradle of the Chinese Nation — Their Settlement in Shan-Si — Charac^ 
teristics of Chinese History — Manifold Invasions of China^ but 
Chitiese Individuality always predominates — Imagination essential 
to Advancement, but the Chinese have it not — Inventions ascribed to 
Them — Stoppage of Developmetit— China for the Chinese — Foreign 
Help Inevitable — Th€ IVoo-Sung Railway — Defects of Chinese 
Character— Pigeon-English — Perverse Employment of it^Prepara- 
tions again for Travel — Detail of Packages — Additions to our 
Following. 

The birthplace of the Chinese nation is veiled in mystery. 
Mr. Douglas, in an exceedingly interesting article in the 

* Encyclopaedia Britannica,' observes: *Some believe that 
their point of departure was in the region to the south-east 
of the Caspian Sea, and that, having crossed the head 
waters of the Oxus, they made their way eastward along the 
southern slopes of the Teen Shan. But, however this may 
be, it is plain that as they journeyed they struck on the 
northern course of the Yellow River, and that they followed 
its stream on the eastern bank, as it trended south, as far as 
Tung-Kwan, and that then, turning with it due eastward, 
they established small colonies on the fertile plains of the 
modern province of Shan-Se.' 

Mr. Douglas also states that the nucleus of the nation 

* was a little horde of wanderers roving amongst the forests 
of Shan-Se without homes, without clothing, without fire to 
dress their victuals, and subsisting on the spoils of the chase 
eked out with roots and insects.' 

There were aborigines already here ; but of them little 
is known ; their remnants are said to exist at the present day 
amongst the Miau-Tzti of Kwei-Chou. 



III. THE EARLY CHINESE, 31 

But the Chinese were the better race ; they were also 
apparently already agriculturists, and as such in a higher 
state of civilisation. One result could but follow ; the 
inexorable law of nature had its way — the inferior and less 
civilised race were pushed out by degrees, just as all the 
barbarous tribes still remaining are surely disappearing 
before the steady advance of the Chinese : as the New 
Zealand Maories and American Red Indians are dying 
away before the Anglo-Saxon race.^ There is no record 
that the Chinese were ever a pastoral people, excepting that 
which lingers in some of the ancient characters of the lan- 
guage, and, as some say, in the wavy outlines of their roofs. 
However that may have been, they appear to have settled 
down as agriculturists in Lower Shan-Si. 

Northern China had not yet been denuded of her 
forests ; but though the climate may have been more 
favourable for agricultural pursuits than in the present day, 
the province of Shan- Si can never have been one that 
yielded a profusion of wealth without the steady application 
of labour. 

Baron Richthofen remarks that * the altitude of its arable 
ground renders nearly the whole of it unfit for raising two 
crops a year.' 

Neither is the climate so severe that labour in the fields 
cannot be carried on at all seasons. 

The Chinese race, therefore, in its infancy found itself 
in a country where steady labour and thrift were necessary 
for life ; and here were perhaps the germs of the industry 
and exceeding carefulness so remarkable in the character of 
the Chinese of the present day. 

Further, this was the order of things most suited for 
the production of a sentiment of equality amongst the 
people, for food was not too easily procured, and a sharp 
division between rich and poor would not immediately 
ensue. It is, therefore, not surprising that a strong demo- 

• * It will not do to argue from this analogy that so will the barbarians 
of Central Asia disappear before the European. The Anglo-Saxon 
cannot colonise there ; if the Russians can, they have indeed a grand 
future before them. 



32 ADVANCE OF CIVILISATION, CH. 

cratic feeling should be another feature of the Chinese as 
they are.^ 

* The dim history of those days throws but a feeble ray of 
light, but it shows us that civilisation advanced, and the 
existence of trade is proved by the establishment of fairs.* 

* The people now spread eastward, and in 2300 b.c. we 
find their capital in the neighbouring province of Shan-Tung, 
and their kingdom extending to the north and east of the 
present Peking, and as far south as latitude 23° N.* 

* But the southern climate seemed to soften the hardy 
northmen, and the varied conditions of life to destroy their 
cohesiveness. . . . We read of a ruler in 1818 b.c in 
whom were combined the worst vices of kings ; * but the 
vitality of the people was still sufficient to make them rise 
against him and sweep away all traces of him and his 
dynasty.' * 

During the next eight hundred years we hear of little 
but internecine wars, and consequent weakening of the 
kingdom. 

Nigh two thousand years had elapsed since first the 
black-haired race had come from the north-west ; three 
sovereign dynasties had reigned, of which the last was sink- 
ing amid the rivalry of feudal states, and China seemed 
rapidly disintegrating, when the Princes of Thsin, a state 
founded five centuries before with their capital at Chang- 
Gan in Shen-Si, conquering in succession the six or seven 
other states, restored (b.c. 251) a strong central power. 

With the accession of new blood, China was reinvigo- 
rated, and this was one of the most flourishing epochs in 
the varied history of this marvellous empire : roads were 
made, canals were dug ; and before long the powerful 
desert horde of the Hiung-Nu, who had long harassed the 

* In China all judicial affairs are conducted more or less in public. 
Even in the presence of the highest officials any one can turn in from 
the street to see what is going on, no one trying to hinder him. A 
beggar will sit down and smoke his pipe in the presence of a magistrate, 
and sometimes join in the conversation unasked. The literary examina- 
tions are open to all— no matter how lowly a man may be, if he can pass 
his examination he may become the highest magistrate in the land. 

' Encyclopedia Brtiannica, 



III. VITALITY OF RACE. 33 

Chinese, were completely routed and driven into Mongolia ; 
and in the year 214 b.c. the Great Wall was commenced as 
a protection against the inroads of these barbarians. The 
veneration of antiquity preached by Confucius now seems 
first to take root, for at this time * schoolmen and pedants 
were for ever holding up to the admiration of the people the 
heroes of the feudal times.' * 

This reverence for antiquity throughout the ages that 
follow, amidst scenes of strife and disorder, as well as during 
the intervals of prosperity, sank deeper and deeper into the 
nature of the Chinese, and in it is to be found one of the 
causes of the present decadence of the nation. 

History now repeats itself again and again with almost 
wearisome monotony ; tumults and disorders, and the con- 
sequent weakness of the people, invite assaults from the 
north ; but time after time the vanquished Chinese seem 
only reinvigorated by their invaders, and we find that each 
fresh incursion is followed by a period of glory. 

In 121 B.C. the Hiung-Nu were driven to the north-east 
of the Caspian. Then succeeded the troublous time of the 
* Three Kingdoms ' ; and in the fourth and fifth centuries of 
our era, the Wei, a race of Siberian nomads, conquered and 
ruled in Northern China. But in the seventh century arose 
the Thang, the most glorious of all the native dynasties. 
Under them Chinese rule extended to Turfan, Khoten, 
Kashgar, and even to the Jaxartes, whilst Chinese fame was 
so great that ambassadors came from the Caliphate, and 
even from Imperial Byzantium. 

Thus the marvellous vitality of the Chinese disposed of 
successive races of invaders — either driving them far from 
their borders, or absorbing them and assimilating them when 
they could not be expelled. 

But yet another army of barbarians appeared in the 
Khitans. These, however, never extended their rule very 
far south, although in 997 a.d. tribute was paid to them 
Later, the Chinese invited a fourth horde, the Kin or Niu- 
Chih, to expel the Khitans. The Kin succeeded in this 

* Encyclopedia Britannica, 
D 



34 THE MONGOL ERA, gh. 

only too well, and in 1150 a. d. established themselves in 
the whole country north of the Yang-Tzii. 

A new race, the Mongols, now came on the scene ; they 
wrested province after province from the Kin, and the place 
of these knew them no more. This was in the thirteenth 
century, and in the brilliant light that radiated from these 
the most successful, the most glorious of all the conquerors 
of China, the feeble glimmer of Kin and Khitan was ex- 
tinguished alike. This was the most celebrated era in the 
whole history of the Chinese Empire ; but it was the 
Mongols, and not the Chinese, who made it so. 

The latter were known to Marco Polo as the people, of 
Manzi, who, if they * had but the spirit of soldiers, would 
conquer the world ; but they are (quoth he) no soldiers at 
all, only accomplished traders and skilful craftsmen ; ' * 
whilst Friar Odoric says : * All the people of this country 
are traders and artificers.' ^ 

True, both Polo and Odoric speak in glowing terms of 
the rich and noble cities of Manzi, of their wealth, magnifi- 
cence, and luxury ; but these were as nothing before the 
glories of the Great Kaan, whose subjects they were, and 
who was a Mongol. But the Mongol power waned, and by 
a turn in the wheel of fate the son of a Chinese labourer 
drove out the successor of Kublai. In more recent days, to 
quell rebellions in the south, the Chinese invited the aid of 
the Manchu Tartars, who now are seated on the Imperial 
throne. 

Thus, through long ages of varied fortunes, the Chinese 
character has been formed; and it would be surprising 
indeed, if a nation that had survived so many and such 
great vicissitudes, had been conquered many times, and had 
each time risen superior to defeat, had absorbed one race of 
victors and driven out another, did not possess some 
characteristic that would mark it as a peculiar people — and 
this characteristic is the individuality of the race. It is, 
indeed, a matter for wonder that a people so numerous and 
covering so vast an area should everywhere appear the 

* Marco Polo, book ii. vol. ii. p. 166. 
" Cathay^ vol. i. p. 105. 



III. IMAGINATION ESSENTIAL, 35 

same ; who, whether they are found in the north, the south, 
the east, or the west of their own huge empire, who, whether 
they are observed as coolies in America or Australia, or met 
as ambassadors in London or St Petersburg, should uni- 
versally possess the same thoughts and the same feelings, 
wear the same clothes, and eat the same food, should be 
imbued with the same habits of intense industry and thrift, 
and should act precisely in the same manner as they did 
many hundreds of years ago. 

Where else in the history of the world can we read of 
three hundred millions of people thus amazingly unchange- 
able? and who can doubt that they must yet remain for 
many centuries an important factor in the Asian problem ? 

Of all qualities that conduce to the advancement of a 
people, imagination is perhaps the most important ; without 
it a nation must remain stagnant, with it the limits of its 
forward march can never be reached. 

No matter what branch of industry or science is ex- 
amined, imagination lies at the root of its advance. 

Surely it was in one of the most mighty flights of imagi- 
nation that the keen gaze of Newton, sweeping across the 
wild chaotic waves of theory that each in turn must have 
leapt up towards his searching intellect, singled out the 
exquisitely beautiful and simple one of gravitation to account 
for the most complex motions of the vast masses that roll 
through space. 

What but the richest imagination could have enabled 
Darwin to conceive the descent of man? or how could 
Professor Owen without imagination have built up from 
some paltry fragment the form of a gigantic mammal ? 

Who without imagination could from mere scratches 
on a rock have enunciated the theory of a glacial epoch ? 
or how, without imagination, could the present marvels of 
electricity have been evolved from the twitching of the 
muscles of a frog ? 

Of art it is hardly necessary to speak ; no one can ever 
have attributed a want of imagination to either painters or 
poets worthy of the name. 

D 2 



36 IVANT OF ORIGINALITY, CH. 

Imagination and originality are more or less inseparable ; 
an individual devoid of one will certainly be deficient of the 
other, and what is true of an individual will equally hold 
good of a nation. 

In the Chinese character originality and imagination are 
conspicuous by their absence. The Chinaman is eminently 
a matter-of-fact person ; sights that would be disgusting to a 
European have nothing unpleasant in his eyes, for every- 
thing is looked at from a utilitarian point of view. The 
beauties of nature have no charms for him, and in the most 
lovely scenery the houses are so placed that no enjoyment 
can be derived from it. If the unhewn log of a tree will 
serve as a beam in the wall, he does not think it worth 
while to spend money or labour in squaring it. A China- 
man may express the highest admiration for a pair of 
European candles, but if they cost a trifle more than his filthy 
oil lamp, he will rarely exchange the glimmer of his time- 
honoured institution for the brilliant light of a composite. 
A Chinaman will feel the texture of a European coat, and 
admit its superiority ; but his first question will be, how 
much did it cost ? In their pictures there is no imagination ; 
they draw birds and insects as they see them, and really 
well. Animals also they attempt, but their ignorance of 
anatomy renders their efforts in this direction ridiculous ; 
but abstract ideas, such as have made the memory of old 
European painters glorious, any attempt to portray Faith, 
Hope, or Charity, any effort to rise above the level of every- 
day life, are things unknown in Chinese art. So in their 
sculpture, they represent men, women, and children as they 
see them, but that is all ; they can imitate admirably, but 
they can imagine nothing. 

But the Chinese are credited with having invented 
almost everything : how can this be reconciled with a want 
of originality ? 

In the first place there are a good many things that the 
Chinese have never invented or discovered. The principle 
of the pump, the circulation of the blood, and the science 
of grafting are still unknown to the Chinese. It has 
frequently been asserted that they invented firearms ; but 



jii. STOPPAGE OF DEVELOPMENT, 37 

the late Mr. Mayers, Chinese Secretary of Legation at 
Peking, has effectually demolished their claim to this dis- 
covery.^ 

The mariner's compass, however, appears to have been 
known to the Chinese at a very early date ; and it must be 
admitted that the early use of bank-notes, and the know- 
ledge of printing, give them some claim to originality in 
ancient days. 

It would be a deeply interesting study, and one well 
worthy of the labour, for any one with sufficient acquaintance 
with the written language of China to investigate the ancient 
books, and from their internal evidence, and not from the 
prejudiced and superficial views of foreigners, to ascertain 
the history of the formation of Chinese character. It would 
appear, however, that originality, if they ever possessed it, 
has been stamped out, partly by the insane teachings of 
Confucius that everything ancient is sacred, and the still 
more insane idea that anything new, no matter what, 
is dangerous. Another cause for the disappearance of 
originality may be found in the preposterous system of 
examinations. Magisterial and official posts are awarded 
only to those who can pass the literary examinations : the 
* literati,' or those who have passed high examinations, are 
the class most highly esteemed in China, and the desire to 
be numbered amongst them is almost universal And what 
are these examinations ? Examination only in the ancient 
classics, the obscure passages in which must only be ex- 
plained in the orthodox manner. 

It is not difficult thus to realise that the Chinese 
character may have changed during the last few centuries, 
and that the originality and power of conception they may 
have possessed may have been crushed out by the worship 
of antiquity and the system of examination. 

. If this be so, the extraordinary stoppage of the early 
development of the people may be accounted for ; for 
without originality, and devoid of imagination, they must 

' Morrison gives 1275 as the time of the invention of powder and 
guns, and was aware that what they called * P'ao ' were machines for 
throwing stones. 



38 CHINA FOR THE CHINESE CH. 

necessarily have stagnated, and have been arrested in the 
onward march towards a more perfect civilisation,® 

Another feature in the Chinese character that may have 
assisted in some degree to retard their development is the 
intense desire of every man to do everything for himself. 
It is undoubtedly prompted by a sturdy feeling of inde- 
pendence, but carried to the excess in which it is seen in 
the Chinese it must be hurtful. 

A Chinaman, if he can, will grow his own grain, grind 
it, or husk it, and cook it on his own premises. If possible, 
he will cultivate his little bit of cotton, and weave the cloth 
without assistance from beyond his household ; all his clothes 
are perhaps made by his wife or family ; and thus he is 
almost independent of any extraneous aid. We in Europe 
know that this is not an economical way of doing things ; 
but the Chinese have done so for generations — and what was 
good enough for their fathers is good enough for them. Of 
course under these circumstances it is almost hopeless to 
expect any improvement in agriculture or agricultural tools, 
or any advance towards a use of machinery. 

Thus with the nation, at the present moment, it is the 
extraordinary idea and wish amongst some of the most ad- 
vanced thinkers to begin their mining operations, smelt their 

• Another reason for the stagnation of the Chinese people may be 
possibly found in the fact that all the talent of the country is absorbed 
in the service of the State. This is partly because of the contempt in 
which the non-official class is held, and partly because there is no en- 
trance to official life of any kind except by competitive examination. 
Now, even in progressive countries, a system which would divert from 
private enterprise all those who help to make the country great, would 
have lamentable results. How much more must this be the case in one 
where enterprise of any kind is almost unknown, and which has, as it 
were, been asleep for centuries. In Western States, honour, fame, and 
dignities attend those who succeed, no matter in what walk of life ; but 
in China none but the officials can hope for any of these. 

If we look back at the history of our civilisation we find that all the 
great strides in science, and nearly all the greatest works of literature 
and art, have been due to private individuals. The discovery of 
America, the establishment of the Overland Route to India by Wag- 
horn, the extraordinary development of newspaper correspondence, are 
but a few of the instances that will occur to any one but slightly ac- 
quainted with history ; and in our own country does not Government 
always look with distrustful eyes on any measure laid before it which 
would appear likely to interfere with, or to retard, individual effort ? 



III. FOREIGN HELP INEVITABLE. 39 

iron with their own coal, and make their own rails for their 
railways, before they do anything else. They want to have 
China for the Chinese ; they desire to do everything for 
themselves, and if possible to exclude foreigners. But how 
far they are from this, they little know. 

True, the palmy days of the British merchants are over ; 
the Chinese have at last learnt how to buy and sell without 
their aid, and they are fast ousting the foreigner from mer- 
cantile pursuits. We cannot of course but be sorry that the 
fine race of men, open-handed and generous, full of courage 
and enterprise, a type of all that is manly and thoroughly 
English, should die out and disappear, and mournful tales 
are told of the destruction in consequence of English trade. 
This is, however, but a superficial way of regarding the irre- 
sistible march of events. If the British merchant is ousted, 
it is because the Chinese can do things cheaper than the 
English ; the result must be that we in England will get our 
tea and silk cheaper than heretofore, and that the people of 
China (if they buy it at all) will buy our cotton cheaper, and 
in consequence buy more. How then is trade injured : is it 
not rather on a better footing ? 

But although commercial pursuits may not be so profit- 
able as they were, there must yet be a future for Europeans 
in China. Great as the opposition is at present, railways 
and telegraphs must certainly be laid down, and will for 
many years to come give employment to large numbers of 
Europeans, for, owing to the want of originality in the Chinese, 
they cannot hope to undertake the sole management of rail- 
ways and telegraphs. 

The Chinese may be taught almost anything — they are 
wonderfully quick at learning and imitating — and they would 
doubtless soon acquire the power of managing engines and 
telegraphs, as long as all went smoothly. But in the moment 
of difficulty, if any fresh combination of circumstances should 
necessitate some original action, or even the smallest amount 
of reasoning, a Chinaman would be found unequal to the 
emergency. The Chinese Government have for a long time 
owned steamers, but the engineers are still European, and 
it will be the same with the railways and telegraphs. There 



40 THE WOO-SUNG RAILWAY, CH 

are at present no railways in China. Some of the merchants 
of Shanghai instituted a short line between Shanghai and 
Woo-Sung, but it came to an untimely end, not so much on 
account of the absolute dislike of the Chinese to railways, 
as from some unfortunate circumstances connected with its 
origin. Rightly, or wrongly, the measure adopted irritated 
the Chinese Government, who declined to have the Woo- 
Sung railway forced upon them, and when it came into their 
hands, contemptuously tore it up. During its construction, 
and in the early days of its existence, there was considerable 
opposition amongst the people of the adjacent villages, ex- 
cited probably by the literati of Shanghai. There were even 
some attempts at suicide, the perpetrators being probably 
bribed to commit these acts. There was considerable 
method shown in the way that the attacks on the railway 
were carried out, and it may not be uninteresting to notice 
one in detail as an illustration. 

There was a Chinaman living at Woo-Sung of a character 
so bad that, amongst the inhabitants of the place, he was 
known as 'The Pirate,' and of a reputation so evil that he 
dared not show his face in Shanghai. This man had a 
nephew who was a * ganger ' on the railway. Possibly bribed 
by the officials, or for some motives that never came to light, 
this man and his nephew incited the people of Woo-Sung 
and of another village to evil deeds. They proceeded to 
dig the ballast from between the rails, and pile it up on the 
line, in the hope of upsetting the train ; but as great crowds 
of people collected on and around the line at this point, 
when the train arrived at the obstacles the engine-driver saw 
that something was wrong, and stopped. 

The train was then attacked, but the engine-driver and 
guard repulsed the mob, captured the nephew of *The 
Pirate,' locked him up in a carriage with another prisoner 
they had caught, and went back towards Shanghai On the 
way thither more mobs collected, and one man attempted 
to commit suicide by throwing himself down in front of the 
engine ; but the engine-driver was again able to pull up in 
time, and the would-be suicide was made prisoner, and, 
with the other two, conveyed safely to Shanghai 



III. PIGEON-ENGLISH. 41 

One curious result of European intercourse with the 
Chinese has been the evolution of * Pigeon-English,' ^ a 
jargon used in the Treaty Ports in the conduct of business 
matters. At the first appearance of the English in the 
country, the Chinese, who are naturally an imitative people, 
began to pick up a few English words, and soon constructed 
a language which was an unnatural combination of deformed 
English words with Chinese ideas and forms. The result 
was a jargon as hideous as it was illogical ; but the English 
traders of the early days, finding they understood somewhat 
of this comic medley, instead of inducing the Chinese to 
make use of correct words rather than the misshapen sylla- 
bles they had adopted, encouraged them, by approbation 
and example, to establish Pigeon-English — a grotesque 
gibberish which would be laughable if it were not almost 
melancholy. The English of the present day cannot do 
much to help themselves, but they might do more ; for 
although it is to a certain extent true that Pigeon-English 
is understood, while the grammatical language is not, yet 
it is not possible to believe that when a glass of beer is 
poured out, even a Chinaman can more readily under- 
stand the idiotic expression * can do ' than the good English 
of ' that will do ' ; or that a Chinese boy would not in 
two days learn that * upstairs ' was the same thing as * top 
side.' 

But far from thinking it any shame to deface our beauti- 
ful language, the English seem to glory in its distortion, and 
will often ask one another to come to * chow-chow ' instead 
of dinner; and send their * chin-chins,' even in letters, 
rather than their compliments ; most of them ignorant of 
the fact that * chow-chow ' is no more Chinese than it is 
Hebrew ; and that * chin-chin,' though an expression used 
by the Chinese, does not in its true meaning come near to 
the * good-bye, old fellow,' for which it is often used, or the 
* compliments ' for which it is frequently substituted. 

Returning to Shanghai on the 21st of November, I began 
to make preparations for a long journey into the interior of 

• * Pigeon,' or, as it is often written, * pidgin,* is a Chinese corrup- 
tion of the English word ' business.' 



42 PACKING AND PACKAGES, CH. 

China, and found plenty of occupation in getting stores of 
all kinds ready. 

Mr. Baber, of the consular service, who was a member 
of the Grosvenor expedition to Yun-Nan, had invited me to 
accompany him to Ch'ung-Ch'ing. I eagerly availed myself 
of his invitation, but as yet formed no definite plans as to 
my future movements, only making up my mind that I 
would be ready for anything that might turn up. 

I therefore prepared stores of all kinds, and arranged my 
provision boxes in pairs, each pair to contain a complete 
supply for two months. Chin-Tai used to carry out my 
orders with amazement. I had some large tin boxes, for 
soldering down, made to order, with strong wooden dove- 
tailed coverings, and inside these I had smaller tin boxes 
fitted.* 

* T had 6 boxes packed each with 30 candles (English candles, six 
to the lb.) 

1 tin box for tea, 5" x 5 J" x 8J". 
4 boxes of matches. 

6 2-oz. pots of Liebig's Extract. 

2 packets of Marseilles compressed vegetables. 
I bottle Worcester sauce. 

I tin box for cigars, 10" x 8^" x 2 J". 
I box of toothpicks. 

I tin box of tooth powder, 3 J" x 2 J" x i J". 
I small bottle cayenne pepper. 
Six other of the large boxes were packed each with : — 
30 candles. 

I tin of salt, 5'' x 4^x3 J". 
I tin of mustard, 2^' x 4" x 3 J". 
6 2-oz. pots of Liebig's Extract. 
I tin for cigars, %^' x d" x 2 j". 
I packet Marseilles preserved vegetables 
4 boxes of matches. 
4 cakes of toilet soap. 
I cake of yellow soap. 

1 cake of carbolic acid soap. 

2 little boxes of Brand's meat lozenges. 

Each of these boxes, when finally packed and soldered down, 
weighed a little over 30 lbs.; quite enough for the mountainous 
countries. 

The quantity of tea that I took was unnecessary, but I only had my 
northern experience to guide me ; and in the province of Chi-Li, and 
beyond the Great Wall, tea can never be bought. In Southern, Central, 
and Western China, tea is always to be procured. The lids of the 
boxes were all screwed down, so that they could be opened and shut 



II. 'DRINKING. 43 

The ordinary Chinese fashion of making tea (except 
in the West, where the tea of Pu-erh is taken) is to put 
about a teaspoonful of tea into the cup and pour boiling 
water on it. The Chinese drink it nearly scalding, and the 
cups are continually refilled with boiling water, fresh tea 
rarely being put into the cups. The object of putting a cover 
over the cup, instead of a saucer underneath, is to prevent 
the tea-leaves getting into the mouth. A Chinaman, before 
putting the cup to his mouth, always sweeps the surface of 
the tea with the cover, to push the floating leaves away from 
the side. He is very skilful in drinking, always holding cup 
and cover with one hand, and leaving just sufficient aperture 
for the infusion to pass without letting the leaves through. 

The Chinese have a theory that if the water is properly 
boiling the leaves will not float on the tea, but if the tea has 
been made with water that does not boil, the leaves will at 
first come to the surface. 

Before leaving Shanghai, Chin-Tai was instructed in the 
art of bread-making, so that during the two months on the 
river we were never reduced to chupatties. I also obtained 
possession of a dog, whose numerous good qualities, as ap- 
praised by his owner, would have made him cheap at any price. 
Baber and I laid in a considerable stock of provisions and 
delicacies for the voyage, amongst which two barrels of flour 
took a prominent position ; and I engaged another servant, 
a friend of Chin-Tai. His name was Chung- Erh, and, 
according to his own statements, he threw up a marvellously 
lucrative engagement out of pure love and friendship for 
Chin-Tai. 

as often as necessary ; and as I could not manage to get sufficient 
candles into the boxes without unduly increasing the weight, I took 
besides an extra supply. 



44 CH. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE OCEAN RIVER. 

Start up the Yang-Tzil — Names of the Great River — The Dog Tib, and 
his ethnological perspicacity — The Grand Canal — Arrival at Hankow 
— Manufacture of Brick- Tea — Tea in Chinese Inns — H, M, S, Kestrel 
— Boat engaged for Upper Yang-Tzil — The Lady Skipper and her 
Craft — Our Departure — Chinese Fuel — Our Eccentricities in 
Chinese Eyes — The New Year Festival — Chinese View of the Wind- 
points — Aspects of the River — Vicissitudes of Tracking — Great Bend 
— Wild Geese — Rice cls Food — The Hills Entered — Walks Ashore — 
Population dense only on the River — Passage in a Cotton BocU — The 
Telescope Puzzles — Arrival at. I- Chang, 

At length the time came for our departure, and the cordial 
good wishes that I received from so many, whose acquaint- 
ance I had hardly formed, made me feel that I was leaving 
many good friends behind ; it was not therefore without 
some regrets that, finally turning my back on Shanghai, I 
stepped on board the steamer ' Hankow,' on the night of 
the 23rd of January, 1877, and began my journey across 
China. 

The great river up which we were now to work a devious 
way is known near its sources under various names. The 
Mongol name of Murui- Ussu is given by both Hue and 
Prejevalsky ; the latter gives Di- Chu as a name in use by 
the Tangutans (as he calls the tribes of north-east Tibet) ; 
Burei-Chu, or Bri-Chu, corrupted by the Chinese to Polei- 
ChUy is another Tibetan name. The Tibetans again at 
Bat'ang, and a little lower, call it the N'jeh-Chu (* chu ' is 
the Tibetan for * river '). 

From Bat'ang to Fu-Chou it has the appellation of Chin- 
Sha-Chiang, or Golden Sand River, from the quantity of 



IV. NAMES OF THE GREAT RIVER. 45 

gold dust amongst the sand in its bed. No other name is 
applied to so long a stretch as this ; and the Chin-Sha is the 
name best known of all. 

Near its mouth, where it opens out to a width of some 
miles, the Chinese call it the Yang-Tzii-Chiang, or Ocean 
River. Friar Odoric, writing about a.d. i 320-1 330 of the 
Great River, calls it the River Talay (Dalai), which is just a 
Mongol version of the Chinese name, and would seem, 
therefore, to have been applied to it by the Mongols then 
ruling in China. The use of the word * Dalai ' in this way 
is therefore quite parallel to that of * Bahr,' as applied by 
the Arabs to the Nile. So also the Tibetans apply the term 
* Samandrang ' (* Samudra,' the ocean) to the Indus and 
Sutlej. 

I have seen it stated that the name Ta-Ho is applied 
also. 

This is to a certain extent true ; for there is scarcely a 
river in China that at some place is not called Ta-Ho, or 
Great River. Where an affluent enters a river, it is of most 
frequent occurrence to find the main river called Ta-Ho, 
and the affluent Hsiao-Ho, or Little River. 

The French have invented a name expressly for them- 
selves, and call it * Le Fleuve Bleu ' ; and Prejevalsky has 
unfortunately adopted it. 

The steamers that ply on the Yang-Tzti-Chiang, between 
Shanghai and Hankow, are built in the style of the American 
river-boats ; they draw scarcely any water, are very light, 
and are perhaps the most luxurious steamers in the world. 

Baber and I were the only passengers, and so there was 
plenty of room for us and our luggage, of which there was 
by no means an inconsiderable quantity. 

Before turning into the luxurious cabin I went to see the 
dog, whose name was *Tib,' but he barked at me as an 
intruder, and the endearing epithets and biscuits that I 
lavished upon him producing not the slightest acknowledg- 
ment of good-will on his part, I left him, to renew his 
acquaintance at a later date. 

^ This dog had been almost entirely amongst Chinese, and 
either the appearance or the smell of a European was distaste- 



46 THE GRAND CANAL. CH. 

ful to him. The Chinese, who to a European nose always 
emit a pecuHar odour, declare that they can perfectly well dis- 
tinguish the smell of a European. There can be no doubt 
that * Tib ' could detect, even at a distance, a European by 
his smell, for he invariably barked at the French missionaries 
directly they entered the courtyard of my house at Ch'eng- 
Tu, although they were always dressed in Chinese clothes. 

Any one who has been long in India will recognise the 
smell of a Hindoo ; and although it is not flattering to our 
vanity to admit it, it certainly seems as if we, as well as all 
other people, had an odour peculiar to ourselves. 

Near Ching-Kiang we passed the mouth of the Grand 
Canal of China, a work that has attracted much attention 
amongst Europeans, who have generally formed a vague 
idea of a magnificent highway, where great fleets of fine 
ships come and go, and where there is yet room for an un- 
limited increase of traffic. As a matter of fact, it is in many 
parts little more than a stinking ditch ; it is already over- 
crowded to a degree almost incredible ; and the water in it 
is often so low that a junk of very moderate dimensions may 
stick and entirely stop the traffic. 

We reached Hankow on the morning of the 30th of 
January in a dismal downpour of rain, which soon after- 
wards turned to snow. In spite of the heavy northerly gale 
which had been blowing throughout the voyage, a damp 
mist generally hid the banks. Some idea of the magnifi- 
cence of the Yang-Tzii may be formed from the fact that at 
Hankow, 680 miles from the sea, the river is still about 
1,100 yards broad. It is embanked with a magnificent 
bund, which is the principal feature of this town. At the 
time of my visit the water was unusually low, being about 
thirty-five feet below the top of the bund. In the summer 
it rises sometimes even over this work, flooding the country 
and the town. Under these circumstances, supposing the 
average velocity of the current to be six miles an hour (and 
it certainly is not less), upwards of a million cubic feet of 
water per second must pass Hankow. 

Hiring boats for the journey to Ch'ung-Ch'ing was not 
altogether a simple matter. It was necessary to let our 



IV. BRICK'TEA, 47 

servants make all the arrangements before disclosing our- 
selves, for boatmen sometimes object to taking foreigners, 
and always try to overcharge them. It was easier to settle 
our money matters. A firm at Hankow gave us a letter of 
credit on their Chinese agents at Ch'ung-Ch^ng, so we were 
not obliged to carry more silver than was necessary for the 
voyage. 

During our stay in Hankow we visited the Russian fac- 
tory, where brick-tea is prepared for the Mongolian market 
Bricks are made here of both green and black tea, but always 
from the commonest and cheapest ; in fact, for the black 
tea the dust and sweepings of the establishment are used. 
The tea dust is first collected, and if it is not in a sufficiently 
fine powder, it is beaten with wooden sticks on a hot iron 
plate. It is then sifted through several sieves to separate 
the fine, medium, and coarse grains. The tea is next 
steamed over boiling water, after which it is immediately 
put into the moulds, the fine dust in the centre, and the 
coarse grains round the edges. 

These moulds are like those used for making ordinary 
clay bricks, but very much stronger, and of less depth, so 
that the cakes of tea when they come out are more like large 
tiles than bricks. The people who drink this tea like it 
black ; wherefore about a teaspoonful of soot is put into each 
mould, to give it the depth of colouring and gloss that 
attracts the Mongolian purchasers ! 

The moulds are now put under a powerful press, and 
the covers wedged tightly down, so that when removed from 
the press the pressure on the cake is still maintained. After 
two or three days the wedges are driven out, the bricks are 
removed from the moulds, and each brick is wrapped up 
separately in a piece of common white paper. Baskets, 
which when full weigh 130 lbs., are carefully packed with 
the bricks, and are sent to Tien-Tsin, whence they find their 
way all over Mongolia and up to the borders of Russia. I was 
told that this tea could be sold retail in St. Petersburg, with 
a fair profit, at the rate of twenty copecks the pound The 
green tea is not made of such fine stuff, but of stalks and 
leaves. The Mongolians make their infusion by boiling. 



48 TEA IN CHINESE INNS, CH. 

In this manner they extract all the strength, and as there is 
no delicate flavour to lose, they do not injure the taste. 

The manufacturer here had set up a small steam-engine 
for the press, but found coolie labour cheaper. He told me 
that the tea the Russians usually drink in their o\^ti country 
is taken direct to Odessa from Hankow by the Suez Canal ; 
and in answer to an inquiry that I made, he assured me that 
even before the Canal was opened it never passed through 
London. A better price is given by the Russians in Hankow 
than the English care to pay. This is the real reason why 
the tea in Russia is superior to any found in London ; for 
caravan tea is a delicacy even amongst the nobles of St. 
Petersburg. 

Anything but very ordinary tea is rare in Chinese inns 
or houses ; occasionally, however, a cup of tea has been 
given me with a delicacy of flavour and a bouquet that I 
have never met with elsewhere. 

A very delicate variety is grown in Pu-Erh in Yun-Nan ; 
it is pressed into annular cakes, and can almost always be 
purchased in the large towns of Western China ; even in 
Ssu-Ch'uan, cakes of the Pu-Erh tea were often given to 
me as a present. But these are exceptions to the general 
rule, as the tea in inns and private houses is indifferent. 
The brick-tea made for the Tibetan market is prepared 
entirely by Chinese at Ya-Chou. It also is made from 
dust and rubbish, and the manufacture is very similar to the 
process at Hankow. 

H.M.S. 'Kestrel' was at Hankow, and a day or two 
before our departure she left for I-Ch'ang, now a treaty 
port under one of the clauses of the Chi-Fu Convention, 
carrying thither Mr. King, the newly-appointed consul to 
that place. The European oflficers of the Chinese customs 
service were also going up, so that Baber and I anticipated 
a merry meeting on our arrival 

When the mysterious process of hiring the boats had 
been accomplished by our servants, we went on board to 
be introduced to the owner and skipper, who was a lady. 
She declared herself capable of navigating the ship, taking 
the helm, working the ulo^ and keeping the trackers up to 



IV. , OUR BOAT. 49 

the mark. Our subsequent experience showed that the last 
of these accomplishments was her strong point, for she had 
a tongue tljat nothing could withstand. The * ulo ' is a kind 
of gigantic scull that is worked by two or more people, 
sometimes from the stern, and sometimes at the side of the 
vessel. The old lady had suddenly discovered that a sail 
would not be altogether a useless article, and had sent to 
buy one. In the mean time I looked round the boat to see 
what manner of craft was to be our home for so many 
weeks. She was about eighty feet long and eleven feet 
broad, and the main deck, if such a term is applicable, was 
about two feet out of the water. The bows, for a space of 
twenty feet, were uncovered ; aft of this a house about 
twenty feet long was built right across the deck, leaving no 
room to pass round the sides. There was a small open space 
aft of the house ; and right over the stern another building, 
where our skipper lived, was piled up to a great height 
The house was about seven feet high, and was divided into 
four compartments, giving us a sitting-room and two bed- 
rooms for ourselves, and a room for the servants. Our 
heavy baggage was stowed away in a hold about three feet 
deep. In our sitting-room we set up a little American 
stove, which had the evil habit of becoming suddenly red- 
hot ; at times the chimney would get twisted, and the wind 
blowing down would send great tongues of flame darting 
across the room ; of course it smoked occasionally ; but 
these little vagaries made us appreciate it all the more when 
it burnt properly. 

Our party now consisted of Baber and myself, a 
photographer whom Baber took up with him, Baber's chief 
servant, Hwu-Fu, who had travelled some time with Baron 
von Richthofen ; Baber's second servant, Wang-Erh, a 
giant of six feet two inches, who had been a soldier drilled 
by European officers, but who had never before been in the 
service of a European ; my two servants, Chin-Tai and 
Chung- Erh, both over six feet high, and * Tib,' a brown 
retriever. There was, in addition, an official sent by the 
Tao-Tai of Hankow to accompany Baber. On the 8th of 
February all the above ship's company was on board ; but 

£ 



50 CHINESE FUEL, . CH. 

our skipper now said that the sail did not fit well, and must 
be altered before she could start So we tried to shake 
ourselves down ; we made bookshelves of the doors of our 
sleeping cabins, and pasted paper over the cracks in the 
wall, through which an icy wind was blowing. The sacri- 
ficial cock was expended during the day, and his blood 
sprinkled on the bow of the boat ; for without this ceremony, 
and the subsequent more serious one of eating the flesh of 
the bird, it would have been nothing less than sheer mad- 
ness to make a start — at least, so thought our skipper and 
his crew. 

Towards the afternoon a fresh easterly breeze sprang up ; 
the old lady suddenly declared that the sail was ready, and 
we started at 2.15 p.m., but only made seven miles before 
anchoring for the night. 

Next morning the snow-storm was so heavy that the 
sailors would not leave their moorings, and we passed the 
time looking out of the window to see if there was a change 
of the weather, and in trying to stop up the cracks about 
the door through which the snow was driving. Our fireplace 
had not as yet proved by any means a success, and on 
thinking that the fuel was in fault we experimented on the 
Chinese mixture of coal and clay. The Chinese are too 
economical to burn coal alone, and mix coal-dust with a 
certain proportion of clay, making up round balls about as 
large as eggs. This burns well enough, and gives out a fair 
amount of heat ; but it is, even in a house, a very unpleasant 
fuel on account of the dirt ; and in our cabin, a gust of 
wind coming down the chimney, or a draught in an unex- 
pected corner, used to blow this fine dust all over the room 
in clouds, and we came to the conclusion that we had not 
yet discovered a perfect fuel. 

We were always moored at night in a crowd of vessels ; 
and of a morning, when all was quiet, the whole place 
seemed to wake up suddenly. At six o'clock there was not 
a sound ; but a few minutes later the crews of all the junks 
in the neighbourhood would arouse themselves with one 
accord. Then commenced the shouting and jabbering of 
all the people getting under way. Presently another junk 



IV. OUR ECCENTRICITIES, 51 

would come against us with a violent bump, and threaten to 
carry away the chimney of our stove. This rouses the ire 
of our skipper and his crew, who all at once vociferate in 
the choicest terms that they can cull from their flowery 
language, the crew of the other junk returning the abuse ; 
and amid the babel the shrill voice of the old lady is easily 
distinguished. Then it is our turn to run into something 
else ; and so on, scraping and bumping, with all the timbers 
of the deck-house groaning and creaking, until we are clear 
of the crowd. 

The Chinese used to think us very odd people ; we 
never could sit in a room without a fire, although they 
never used a fire at all except for cooking, and were quite 
content to remain with windows and doors open, almost in 
the open air, trusting to their wadded garments and thick- 
soled shoes to keep them warm. They saw no harm in a 
gale of wind blowing in their faces ; but we were always 
draught-hunting — stuffing in some cotton-wool here, pasting 
paper there, hanging curtains up, and taking an immense 
amount of trouble to keep out a little snow or a current of 
cold air ; and as for our fire, we were perpetually fussing 
about it — if we found one kind of fuel did not burn, we 
were always worrying the servants to try something else, 
instead of doing without, like sensible people. Then they 
never cleaned their places — why should we? — but if we 
found an inch or two of harmless dust anywhere, or a pile of 
dirt in a quiet corner, nothing would satisfy us but having 
it removed. And notwithstanding all this, we, who felt the 
cold so much, were always taking off our clothes, and would 
in the morning sit, for no conceivable object, in a tub of 
cold water, instead of following their plan of keeping on the 
winter garments night and day, until the weather should 
begin to get warm. Then our clothes were preposterous — 
stupid, thin, tight-fitting affairs — as useless as they were 
hideous ; no wonder, we felt cold. We certainly did feel 
cold ; but, notwithstanding the severity of the weather, we 
adhered to our national customs ; and at length, by dint of 
perseverance, we made our room tolerably tight, and managed 
to keep up a moderate degree of warmth. 

E 2 



52 THE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL. CH. 

At the best of times, the scenery can scarcely be said to 
make this part of the river inviting ; and we did not find 
much to regret in the necessity for keeping the windows 
covered. There was nothing to see but sloping mud banks, 
and a dead level beyond all white with snow ; whilst a 
collection of miserable huts here and there, with a stunted 
and leafless willow, a few reeds, or bits of long grass, just 
appearing out of the white covering, only served to lend 
additional dreariness to the scene. 

The 1 2th of February was the time of the Chinese New 
Year festival, which lasts about ten days. There was much 
feasting, popping of crackers, and beating of drums all the 
morning, and the people were so well amused they did not 
want to leave. We sent out at seven o'clock to know when 
they were going ; they replied, * Immediately.' At eight 
o'clock we wanted to know how long it would be before they 
started ; they answered, * No time at all.' At nine o'clock we 
said they really must get under way ; they declared they 
were going to. At ten o'clock we threatened that they 
should have no New Year's present unless they moved at 
once ; they sent back to say that we were just off. At 
deven o'clock Baber ordered Hwu-Fu to go to our accom- 
panying official ; but they said he would be left behind if 
we let him leave the boat At twelve o'clock we began to 
make a real disturbance, when they let go the mooring rope, 
and we went on to a place called Hua-K'ou. Here I asked 
our captain which way the wind was. She replied that the 
north wind was strong, but the east wind not so strong ; by 
which she meant that it was about NNE., and made us 
almost think she had learnt mathematics, and understood 
the resolution of forces ! 

After passing the entrance to the Tung-Ting lake, on the 
1 7th of February, we noticed that beyond this point the junk- 
traffic was very much less than lower down. 

During the summer, the river overflows its banks and 
floods the surrounding country. There are extensive lines 
of embankment from one to two miles inshore, and all the 
villages are behind the inner line. This gives a dreary 
appearance to the landscape ; and the traveller, walking for 



IV. VICISSITUDES OF TRACKING, 53 

hours without seeing a village or meeting a human being, 
might easily be misled into the belief that he was in an 
uninhabited country. Nevertheless, there are a great many 
villages in the neighbourhood, which seemed in a very 
flourishing and well-to-do condition. The country was 
closely cultivated, the fields were protected by splendid 
embankments, and, as the snow had now all melted, the 
young crops coming up looked fresh and green. 

It is a busy scene when a large number of junks are 
tracking together. Now an ambitious captain thinks he 
can shoot his vessel in front of another in-shore, and tries to 
pass his tracking rope over the mast-head of his rival This 
excites the jealousy of the crew, and if the tracking ropes 
foul, or the junks bump together, it rouses their anger. 
The two captains then mount to the highest parts of the 
deckhouses, swear at one another, stamp their feet and shake 
their fists, both crews in the mean time shouting directions 
to the coolies on shore ; but as they all talk at once, down 
to the smallest children, they are not generally very success- 
ful in making themselves understood. Then the confusion 
is tremendous ; a track rope is unexpectedly tightened, and 
one or other of the vessels heels over so much that she is in 
danger of foundering. At last the junks shake themselves 
clear, but by pure good fortune, management having played 
a most insignificant part in the manoeuvres. After they 
have been out of hearing of one another for some time the 
captains leave off swearing ; but should accident again bring 
them together, the skippers at once mount to their elevated 
positions, and the commination service begins afresh. Al 
though the trackers are often a quarter of a mile away from 
the boat, and at that distance the people on board naturally 
find it very difficult to make themselves heard, and though 
there is often such a crowd of junks whose crews are all 
shouting together that it would seem impossible for any 
coolie to distinguish the orders meant for himself, yet they 
never attempt to introduce a code of signals. It is custo- 
mary, however, in the rapids, higher up the river, to use a 
drum, the coolies pulling as long as the ^rum beats, and 
stopping when it ceases. 



54 WILD GEESE. CH. 

There is a great bend between Last Bottle Reach and 
No Beer Channel,^ where two points on the river are 
separated by a neck of land not more than three-quarters 
of a mile broad, the distance between them by the river 
being about fifteen miles. This neck must become more 
narrow each year, for the river sweeps down on to it at both 
sides. Blakiston represents it as one and a half mile across 
in his time. There can be little doubt that in a few years it 
will be cut through, and become the channel. Near this 
neck I could watch the movements of thousands of wild 
geese on a wide sandbank across the river. There were no 
people or boats on that side, but the birds appeared very 
uneasy. In their movements they put me very much in 
mind of swallows flocking at the approach of winter, and I 
wondered if they were preparing to leave the country before 
the hot weather. Every now and then they would get up 
with a great clamour, fly across the river, wheel round and 
round, and then return to the sandbank. They generally 
began calling just as they rose from the ground, but on one 
occasion they did not commence their hoarse croak until 
they were well in the air ; and at the distance of about 
half a mile the simultaneous flapping of some thousands 
of big wings sounded like the report of a heavy gun very 
far away. 

When we were favoured with a fair wind our crew would 
sit on the forecastle, eating, drinking, and talking incessantly, 
and * whistling for the wind ' just as European sailors do. On 
an occasion like this, when the breeze relieved them of their 
work, they used thoroughly to enjoy the unaccustomed treat 
of eating their meals in a leisurely manner. They would 
generally get up at a quarter past five, and roll up their 
blankets, and take down the framework and matting with 
which the front deck was always covered in at night. The 
start was usually effected immediately after this, and by 
seven o'clock the cook and cook's mate had prepared a 
gigantic bucket of rice and a few vegetables. The ship was 
then anchored for ten minutes, during which time the coolies 
would manage to eat each two or three basins of rice. In 

* Names given by Captain Blakiston to these reaches. 



IV. RICE AS FOOD. 55 

the middle of the day, a quarter of an hour was allowed for 
a similar meal ; but at night, when work was over, they 
could spend as long a time as they liked over their supper. 
Nine-tenths of the food of these coolies was rice boiled 
perfectly plain ; they would eat some chopped vegetables 
with it, cooked in a great deal of grease ; and when by 
chance we shot a gull, a crane, or other strange bird, it 
afforded them the rare luxury of meat ; but the proportion 
of rice to all their other food was so large that the amount 
of grease they ate was not very considerable, though all 
their little luxuries, such as a bit of ancient fish, or a lump 
of fat pork, were cooked in large quantities of grease. 

Rice is a food that is not well adapted for men doing 
hard physical work, except where it is so cheap that large 
quantities can be eaten at a less cost than a smaller propor- 
tion of more nourishing food ; and, in travelling, it is very 
striking to note that the very day on which the rice-growing 
country is quitted, some other grain at once becomes the 
food of the people ; rice is so bulky that even one day's 
carriage makes it too costly for any but the well-to-do. The 
grease eaten by the coolies, far from being an unaccountable 
taste, is an absolute necessity ; no man can live without 
grease in some form or another, least of all those doing hard 
physical work on rice for their staple food. 

About half our coolies were opium-smokers ; but whether 
it was owing to the active life in the fresh air, or to the 
weakness of the drug they used, it did not seem to do them 
any harm. 

Passing Sha-Shih we soon left the vast and monotonous 
alluvial plain of the lower Yang-Tzu, and were fairly in the 
hills. The ground was well cultivated, and the crops, which 
seemed to be growing by magic, were very green. Temples 
and pagodas here are perched on the highest points. Com- 
fortable-looking farmhouses nestle in the hollows, surrounded 
by small bamboo copses. Children in the dirt, with pigs and 
dogs, play about the doors, where the women sit sewing and 
talking. On the hill-sides there are litde clumps of cedars 
and firs, or patches of long grass ; dog-violets are in blossom 
at the sides of the path, and the flowers of great fields of 



56 * IVHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?' CH. 

rape shine as brilliant streaks of yellow in the distance. The 
grand river, still half a mile wide, now clear and almost green, 
rolls below the cliffs of red sandstone, and numerous junks 
going up and down lend life and animation to the scene. 

As we were sitting after dinner, with open windows, a 
man in a junk alongside said something I did not understand, 
when, to my astonishment, Baber took a header out of the 
window, and *went for that heathen . Chinee.' The man, 
•however, escaped, and when Baber returned through the 
door, he explained that the object of his wrath had called 
us devils. Another man presently came, and resting his 
arms on the window stood calmly gazing at us. At last 
Baber politely asked him what he was looking at. Not in 
the least abashed, he quietly replied, * I am looking at you 
sitting down ' — an eminently matter-of-fact reply, very charac- 
teristic of the Chinese character. 

On the 5th of March, as we were nearing I-Ch'ang, I took 
a walk inshore over the hills, about six hundred feet high. 
Directly the river is left, even by half a mile, the thinness of 
the population becomes apparent. Here the cultivation 
was only in the valleys, all the slopes and the tops of the 
hills being covered with beautiful long grass and low scrub. 
During a walk of more than two hours I scarcely saw a house, 
and did not meet half a dozen people. 

After a time I returned to the river, and through a tele- 
scope saw the junk sailing away before a fresh breeze. I 
did not particularly wish to walk to I-Ch'ang, because I had 
heard that there had been some sort of disturbances there, 
and I had no wish to get into an unpleasant hooting crowd, 
if I could help it. So I told Chung-Erh to try and engage 
a boat. There was some difficulty about this, as all the 
boats belonged to fishermen, who did not care to do any- 
thing out of their accustomed ways ; but I presently fell 
in with a jmall junkful of traders carrying cotton up to 
I-Ch*ang ; they were very civil people, and took me on 
board. They looked at my gun and cartridges, for which 
they did not care much ; but my telescope was a source of 
great merriment. They knew well enough what it was, 
though one and all completely failed to manipulate it. First 



IV. OPTICAL ILLUSIONS^ 57 

one man took it, and the others eagerly asked him what he 
saw. After having pointed the glass steadily at the sky for 
some time, he answered in a doubtful sort of way that he 
could not see much ; at which his friends jeered him, and 
made him give up the glass to the next man, who took it 
with a most superior air, as much as to say, * Ah, just let me 
show you how to do it ! ' But after putting it out of focus, 
and looking straight into the bottom of the boat, he tried to 
see the inside of the telescope, and passed it on, with a shrug 
of his shoulders, distinctly under the impression that it was 
stuffed up. The third man, after I had again focussed it, 
chiefly poked it into the eyes of everybody else and knocked 
their hats off, at which he was voted a nuisance. 

Then the evening closed in, and under the shelter of the 
straw covering we had tea, and smoked until we arrived at 
I-Ch^ang. 

When I entered the cabin of our junk I was warmly 
congratulated on my safe arrival by a voice from a vast 
collection of opened newspapers. Careful search revealed 
Baber hidden in the product of three mails, and in answer 
to my question, he explained that his hearty reception was 
caused by my escape from the mob of I-Ch'ang, who at this 
time were very turbulent, so much so that the newly ap- 
pointed consul had deemed it prudent to send out a strong 
escort to look for me. 

I then learnt all the news. There was now a consider- 
able European community at I-Ch'ang — the English consul 
and his Vice ; the chief of the Chinese customs, with two 
assistants ; the captain of a river steamer, who was up here 
to prospect, and three missionaries. The chief commis- 
sioner of customs had been the first to arrive, and after him 
the consul had come in the ' Kestrel,* to choose a site for the 
English settlement. At first they found the people civil and 
obliging ; they were never annoyed in any way, and used to 
walk about anywhere and everywhere. The consul selected 
a piece of ground, made the necessary agreements, ordered 
the boundary-stones, thought that everything was comfortably 
settled, and was going to mark out the concession, when the 
aspect of affairs changed completely. 



58 ALARMS AND EXCURSIONS, CH. iv. 

There was amongst the richer classes, and especially 
amongst the literati, a strong anti-European feeling. A 
report was spread that land was to be taken without pay- 
ment, and other slanderous tales were invented by which 
the minds of the easily excited Chinese population were 
inflamed. One day, without previous warning, the consul 
was unexpectedly mobbed and insulted, and after that no 
European was able to walk on shore without an escort. 

Such was Baber's news, and I heartily congratulated 
myself on the fortunate rencontre with the traders' junk. 




CHAPTER V. 

THE GORGES OF THE GKEAT RIVER. 

Thel-Ch'ang Mob— Chinese Utiriasim^Departure fmm I-CKang, and 
Adieu te En^isk Faces— The Gorges Entered— Vicissitudes ef A steal 
—Seenery ef the Gorges- Preparation for the Rapids— Astent of 
Eaf ids— Yang- TzH Li/e-boals— Dangers <f the Rapids— Vinv at 
CkHng-Tan-CkHng- Tan Sapid— Wailingour Turn— Pilots of the 
Rapid— Successful Ascent— Made of Trading— Long Gorge of Wu- 
Shan— Weird and Gloomy Aspect— Kuei-Chou-Fu-Melliod of Salt 
JUanitfacturc— Extraordinary Richness of Soil— Chinese Skill in 
Agriculture Overrated— Their True Excellence is in Industry — St. 
George's Island— Cataplasm for a Stove-in funk—The River ef 
Golden Sand at Last— The Use of the Great Sculls. 

We were obliged to stop at I-Ch'ang for a couple of days. 
The vessels wanted recaulking, some fresh rigging was 
required, and, above all, a new crew ; for the navigation of 
the Yang-Tzu above I-Ch'ang is very different from the simple 
tracking below, and the shoals, rocks, and rapids, some ot 



6o THE BASE MULTITUDE, CH. 

which are very dangerous, require a very skilful and practised 
crew. 

The governor-general of the province had come up to 
arrange matters with our consul ; but he went away two 
days after our arrival, either because he would not take the 
trouble to arrange matters, or because he was afraid of the 
responsibility of failure. No doubt he thought that things 
were going wrong, and in plain English his departure would 
have been called running away. When he left, of course all 
the people in the neighbourhood who had spare gunpowder 
let off guns. 

At about ten o'clock the consul went ashore again with 
the Tao-Tai, attended by the other chief Chinese officials, 
and escorted by a regiment of braves. They were at once 
surrounded by a yelling mob : and as the officials and braves 
were quite unable to quell the disturbance, they retired to a 
temple, near which they succeeded in making prisoners of 
two men who appeared to be ringleaders, and these they 
carried off. When they were inside the walls of the buildings, 
one of the officials walked up and down, stamping and call- 
ing the people of I-Ch*ang by all the vile epithets he could 
think of. 

The clamour outside now induced the officials to give 
up their prisoners, a concession which had much the same 
effect as a pot of Liebig amongst a pack of wolves. After 
a while a retreat was determined on ; and the whole party 
returned to the landing-place, amidst a shower of dirt, 
stones, brickbats, and tiles. On the way the Tao-Tai lost 
his temper, and, stamping with rage, said to the mob, * Here 
I am ; why don't you kill me at once, and be done with it ? ' 
But the mob either had no reason in particular, or did not 
care to give one, and the party advanced without a reply to 
the question. The Tao-Tai still showed a bold front, until 
he was suddenly met by a hideous old woman with a ladle 
of filth ; this was too much, for the awful nature of a ladle 
of filth in China can hardly be conceived. 

When they again reached the shore, we could see the 
performance from our boat. About a hundred little boys 
led the procession hooting and shouting * Foreign devil I ' 



V. CHINESE UNREASON. 6i 

Next came a dozen braves in red clothes armed with gin- 
galls. The vice-consul followed under the protection of a 
gigantic brave from the north of China, with whose enormous 
strides he vainly attempted to keep step. After them the 
consul was walking with the Tao-Tai, who seemed rather 
glad to discard his red official canopy. Behind all was the 
howling mob ; and the remainder of the braves were scat- 
tered about amongst the crowd. 

The party regained the boats without a very serious 
butcher's bill : the vice-consul lost a button from his coat ; 
and one of the braves was cut by a stone. He smeared 
the blood all over his face, and with this ghastly aspect 
rushed to the Tao-Tai and demanded an indemnity of ten 
taels. 

There are no people more easily led than the Chinese, 
by those who have fairly established an influence over them ; 
ordinarily, too, they are exceedingly respectful and obedient 
to authority. If instances were wanting, the way in which 
Gordon could do what he liked with his Chinese army 
shows how powerful in the minds of a Chinaman is the 
instinct to follow those who can lay claims to his fidelity. 
But it sometimes happens that in large towns some rich 
family may get more influence than the officials, especially 
if the latter are very corrupt or extortionate. This was the 
case at I-Ch'ang, where a family named Fu were believed 
to be the chief leaders of the people, and the instigators of 
the disturbance. 

The Chinese are, moreover, eminently an unreasoning 
people ; the movements of a mob everywhere are dictated 
rather by caprice than reason. It is very easy too to raise 
the devil of popular wrath, but it is generally a more diffi- 
cult matter to allay it ; and later, although it was supposed 
that the Fu family were desirous of doing so, they were 
quite unable to quiet the populace. 

The extraordinary ideas that penetrate a Chinese mob 
of course help to make their conduct inexplicable. Here 
they had a notion that our consul was the brother-in-law of 
our queen, and agreed that, for that reason, it would not be 
proper to injure him* Although it is difficult to trace the 



62 OFF AGAIN! CH. 

logic in this reasoning, it shows the respect of the Chinese 
generally for high authority, even under circumstances where 
it would be least anticipated. 

By the 8th of March the officials at length managed 
to effect some sort of compromise between the rioters and 
the Europeans, and the boundary-stones were successfully 
put up ; after which the consul left for Hankow. 

We saw the blood of the cock duly sprinkled on the 
bows of the boat, and our skipper and her crew were very 
busy making preparations : taking on board great quantities 
of ropes of all sorts and sizes, some of bamboo and some ot 
hemp. Strong stanchions had been put up on the gunwale 
on both sides, to act as thole-pins for large strong oars. 
Then the forward rudder was arranged. This is a very 
strong oar, some forty feet long, which projects thirty feet 
beyond the bow. At the inboard end ropes are fastened, so 
that some half-dozen men can assist in the steering ; and 
thus a very powerful steering apparatus is formed. 

IrCh'ang seemed to be a cheap place for cabbages, for 
the crew brought on board an enormous cargo. There is a 
peculiarity in the market of I-Ch'ang that I never heard of 
elsewhere ; for the price of things never varies, but when 
they are dear or cheap, there are more or fewer ounces to 
the pound ! 

Before leaving we found a carpenter who was able to fix 
glass into the windows of our cabin, and as we succeeded 
in buying a couple of panes we very much increased our 
comfort. 

On the 9th of March all English faces were left behind, 
and from this time until my arrival at Bhamo in November 
I saw no European save my travelling companions and 
the French missionaries. With many a hearty shake of the 
hand we said good-bye to the customs officers. At 7.30 the 
mooring lines were let go, and as the entrance to the gorges 
loomed before us, we seemed to have cast loose the last 
rope that bound us to civilisation. 

After having been so long slowly winding up the tortuous 
reaches of the river, gliding through the alluvial plain, where 
there is scarcely anything to relieve the monotony of the 



V. THE GORGES. 63 

landscape, the sudden change in the scenery that appears 
beyond I-Ch*ang is very striking. 

The river soon narrows to a width of from four to five 
hundred yards. Steep spurs from mountains three thou- 
sand feet high run right down to the water's edge ; their 
sides, wherever they are not absolutely perpendicular, covered 
yith long orange-brown grass, that seems to grow almost 
without any soil. On the more gentle slopes terrace culti- 
vation is carried on — little patches of the most brilliant 
green, sometimes a thousand feet above the river, and 
looking almost overhead, showing the presence of some 
industrious farmer, who will not leave a square yard unculti- 
vated if he can help it. Sometimes the hills are broken 
into precipices, rising three hundred feet sheer up from the 
water, beneath which the river runs with a glassy surface; 
at others there are loose piles of debris or gigantic masses 
of rock strewn about the bed, where the water dashes in 
wild confusion. Now and then a cleft in the hill-side dis- 
closes a tiny stream leaping from rock to rock amongst 
ferns, long overhanging shrubs and brambles. Once the 
steep slopes running up a thousand feet were crowned at 
the top by a grim wall of white cliffs three hundred feet 
high and about a couple of miles long ; and, looking up a 
valley, pine forests could be seen on the northern slopes 
of the snow-capped mountains. 

Nor is it the change in scenery alone that causes a 
feeling of strangeness, but the mode of travelling itself 
combines to give a sense almost of bewilderment Now 
there is no foothold for a goat at either side ; the trackers 
come on board, and we have to row, five oars on each side 
pulled by ten lusty coolies, shouting to encourage themselves 
and mark the time. With each stroke of the sweeps the 
J- boat creaks and shakes, and from cliff to cliff, before and 
behind us, are echoed the regular cries of many boatmen, all 
urging their vessels against the rapid stream. Suddenly the 
cadence ceases, a confused babel of tongues swells in loud 
disorder, and, looking out, we find the trackers are being 
put ashore, the crew of every boat struggling to get before 
that of another. Every man with a different idea about the 



64 A TRIP ASHORE. CH. 

way something ought to be done, and proclaiming it as loud 
as he can, tries to shout down all the rest The noise 
increases, and seems to peal from one end of the long reach 
to the other — when suddenly all on board is still ; we glide 
smoothly along, not a plank or a beam giving out a note of 
straining — but away ashore, quite softened down by distance, 
we still can hear the regular cry of the coolies, as, keeping 
step, they draw us quietly along. Now the towpath comes 
to an end, and the coolies must again come on board, but 
this time in a sampan, as here the vessel cannot run ashore. 
Now we cross the river to a path that runs up till the 
trackers look right over the mast-head. But one thing is 
never wanting at a critical moment, nor when the wild 
chorus of shouts is at its loudest ; for above the din, what- 
ever it may be, the shrill tones of the old woman at the stern 
rise in hideous discord. 

In the afternoon we made fast to one of the big rocks 
lying about, near some level ground in the- bed of the river,- 
where people living in a few small temporary huts were 
doing a little trade by selling odds and ends to the boat- 
men who stop here to rest. Stepping ashore we find little 
choice in the walks. There is but one path, and that soon 
leads to a zigzag track up the mountain-side. We follow up, 
but every now and then lose it, and have to clamber about 
with hands and feet from one rock to another, till we 
unexpectedly come upon a hut, perched on a tiny artificial 
plateau, surrounded by a few bamboos, orange trees, and a 
fir or two. Our sudden appearance startles a couple of 
fowls, who rush off cackling to a safe refuge by the fire 
inside. The never-absent dog comes out to see what is the 
matter, and does not cease barking until our retreating forms 
disappear behind some gigantic rock. Up we clamber, our 
protecting minions from the gunboat puffing and panting 
as they wonder why the mad foreigners want to be always 
going uphill. At length we reach a projecting point, where 
a bit of flat rock gives us a comfortable seat, and almost 
underneath us, a thousand feet below, the river, dwarfed by 
the distance, looks no more than fifty yards wide. To the 
south and west, the hills rise in masses one behind another — 



V. ASCENT OF A RAPID, 65 

mountains backed up by mountains, higher and yet higher, 
one giant leaning lovingly on the shoulder of the next, till, 
as we gaze towards the setting sun, with the eye of fancy, we 
can see them, range beyond range, stretching far over the 
borders of the Chinese empire, and at length culminating in 
the mighty peaks of the Himalayas. 

In the afternoon of the nth we reached the lower end 
of the Ta-Tung rapid, where we anchored and awaited our 
turn to ascend. 

In the mean time the usual bamboo tracking line was 
cast off, and a strong hempen one substituted, and our old 
skipper, after much talking, concluded a bargain with the 
extra coolies required to help us up the rapid. 

At the foot of all the serious rapids there are a number 
of temporary shanties erected — temporary, for the ground 
on which they stand is under water during the floods of 
summer. Coolies who come up here for the winter and 
spring live in these, and make a livelihood by assisting the 
ascending junks to pass the rapids, for a large junk may 
require an extra hundred of coolies to haul her up. Amongst 
these hired coolies there is always one who, owing to his 
skill, is a person of such importance that he is often saluted 
with an explosion of crackers when he first comes on 
board. 

At length our turn arrives. We have now only five men 
left on the forward deck ; four of these, picked for their 
nerve and experience, stand to the forward steering apparatus, 
and the fifth squats down with the drum between his knees. 
All give one anxious glance round to see that everything is 
right ; the signal is given, the drum is beaten with a regular 
cadence, the coolies ashore shout as the rope tightens to 
their pull, and in a moment we are in the rapid. The water 
boils and foams about us, and leaps now and then up at the 
bow as if it would engulf us ; but we steadily ascend ; 
inch by inch we make our way ; the coolies ashore attending 
carefully to the signals given by changing the cadence of the 
drum. 

Now it is interesting to watch the movements of the agile 

F 



66 THE NIU-KAN GORGE. ch. 

coolie who was received with so much respect. He seems 
to combine the activities of a goat and a fish. The bed of 
the river is strewn with granite boulders, some as large as a 
small house ; the tracking line catches in an uncompromising 
corner of one of them, in an instant the naked coolie — for 
he has disembarrassed himself of every shred of clothing — 
is at the top, and the line is clear. Now, behind a ledge of 
rocks, there is a backwater, and he has to swim across it 
to disentangle the rope from the mast of a fishing-boat 
anchored in the rushing torrent ; and again, active as he 
is, he is on shore only just in time to save the rope from 
another rock. 

Little by little, though it seems slow work, the end is 
approached. At last, after three quarters of an hour, we 
pass the two hundred yards, and glide round a rock into 
a pool of still, calm water, where our coolies receive the 
congratulations of their friend, and we anchor for the 
night. 

As we were looking straight up the Niu-Kan gorge a 
glorious mountain towered above us in the distance, seeming 
double its real height from the clouds that hung around its 
sides and left only its summit clear Against th€ sky. Cliffs 
two hundred to three hundred feet high bounded the river 
on either hand, the hill-sides glowed in the rich colouring 
of browns and deep orange reds, and the huge boulders 
lying about gave a savage grandeur to the scene. The 
people here call the river the Ta-Cha-Ho, which means the 
river of lees or dregs — a most appropriate name, for the 
whole bed is strewn with debris brought down from the far- 
distant mountains. 

On arriving at the foot of the next rapid, a very ominous 
sight presented itself to us. Stranded on a rock, with the 
water boiling and foaming around it, was half of a junk, 
w^hich, coming down the river four days before, had driven 
her stern on to the pitiless ledge. In a very short time the 
furious stream had broken off the fore part of the vessel, 
and left the remainder an object of terror to the super- 
stitious sailors. No lives were lost, and the greater part of 
the cargo was saved ; but the grim and shattered relic, with 



V. MAN THE LIFE-BOAT.' by 

a coil of rope and a bundle of cabbages still lying on the 
after-house, formed a warning to rash navigators in the 
dangerous rapid. 

To make the scene more thrilling there were a couple of 
life-boats paddling about close in amongst the rocks. These 
are not life-boats in our sense of the word, as to floatation. 




Mouth of Niu-K>n Gor|c. 

but they are as to saving life. Strongly built, they are 
manned by a picked crew of six soldiers,' and stationed at 
the dangerous places, to rescue any unfortunates from a 
wrecked junk that may be struggling in the water. The 
boats are painted red, and have some characters written on 
' The Chinese make little distinction between sailors and soldiers. 



68 STOP HER! CH. 

them. The men wear the usual blue trousers, blue tunic, 
and the blue Ssii-Ch'uan turban. Over the blue tunic there 
is a yellowish drab coat without sleeves ; and on the front 
and back of this is a white circle inscribed with characters 
in red, indicating the company or camp to which the men 
belong. 

They seemed to manage their boat in a quiet sailor-like 
fashion, and paddled steadily beside us as we went up. 
When once the junk was absolutely in a rapid our crew also 
worked very quietly ; there was then always one guiding 
spirit, and, until we had safely passed, everything was left to 
his judgment. But the moment the danger was over, the 
shouting and noise began again, every one trying to make up 
by louder vociferation than usual for the few minutes of 
enforced silence. 

Ascending a rapid in a big boat is in fact an operation 
that requires the very nicest skill and judgment and the 
most prompt and ready obedience to the smallest signal 
given by the commander. The very slightest error, or the 
smallest delay in executing an order, would often be fatal, 
and bring about a serious accident. The old lady never 
attempted to take charge under these circumstances, but 
generally the chief of the coolies she had hired at I-Ch'ang 
was in command, though on some occasions a pilot came 
on board with the extra coolies at the rapids. 

Often the vessel will be driven violently ashore, or on to 
a rock, by an eddy, and to deaden the shock a simple kind 
of buffer is used. This is a very powerful spar on the star- 
board side, loosely lashed to a stanchion on the bulwark. 
When in use the forward end is pushed a long way in front 
of and below the bow, and the united strength of three or 
four coolies, at the inboard end of the spar, takes the first 
shock and lessens the concussion of the boat, though often, 
notwithstanding this, the blow is very violent. 

When we looked out on the morning of the 13th, the 
steep slope of the Ch'ing-Tan rapid, the worst of all the 
rapids on the Yang-Tzu, was swelling and foaming almost 
under our bows. All night long we had heard its roar and 
rush, and now it seemed as if it were impossible for any 



V. EASY AHEAD! 69 

boat to ascend it. Rocks cropped up in most unpleasant 
places, a broad sheet of white foam extended right across, 
and the very fish were jumping and leaping in their efforts 
to ascend 

Our accompanying official, Sun, sent to say that he had 
no intention of risking his valuable life in any boat up that 
awful torrent ; and that we had better follow his example, 
and not only walk up ourselves, but send our valuables also 
by land. We, however, came to the conclusion that all our 
goods were equally valuable, and that unless we regularly 
unloaded the ship we could do little good ; and as for our- 
selves, we determined that the excitement of going up was 
worth any risk there might be. We thought, too, that if we 
remained on board the people might be more careful than 
if we went ashore. 

There was a long time to wait before our turn came, and 
we watched a small junk make several attempts to ascend 
before finally succeeding ; whilst a crowd of people gradually 
collected who had come to see the unwonted sight of two 
foreigners going up the rapid. 

The shore was strewn with gigantic boulders, amongst 
which knots of Chinamen in their blue cotton clothes sat 
and stood in every conceivable attitude ; some were perched 
on the tops of the rocks, others at the edge of the water 
were catching fish about the size of sprats, and little ragged 
and dirty boys had arranged themselves in artistic groups 
that Murillo alone could have painted. A steep bank rose 
up thirty feet, on which the town was built ; but the level 
ground was so scarce that the houses were obliged to seek 
extraneous aid, and support themselves on crooked and 
rickety-looking piles. Beyond towered the giant mountains 
above an almost perpendicular wall of rock that rose many 
hundreds of feet straight up from the river. 

The ship was now lightened as much as possible by the 
removal of some of the heavy cargo, and all the morning 
was occupied in laying out warps. One, four hundred yards 
long, led straight up the rapid ; and two other safety-ropes 
were made fast ashore, so that if the first and most im- 
portant should have parted, we should have merely glided 



70 THE PILOT. CH. 

back whence we came, always provided that we did not strike 
one of the vicious-looking rocks whose wicked heads rose 
above the foam. 

Just at this time a little sampan with two rowers and a 
helmsman came down, and it was really a fine sight. As 
they entered the broken water the boat disappeared 
altogether from view, and the fearless yet anxious look of 
the steerer was quite a study. A couple of seconds, and 
they were through, and floating in the smooth water 
below. 

Presently a most important functionary came on board, 
a serious-looking man, with a yellow flag, on which was 
written, ' Powers of the water ! 1 a happy star for the whole 
journey.' 

This individual must stand in the bows and wave his flag 
in regular time ; and if he is not careful to perform this duty 
properly, the powers of the water are sure to be avenged 
somehow. Another method of softening the stony hearts 
of these ferocious deities is to sprinkle rice on the stream 
all through the rapid ; this is a rite that should never be 
omitted. 

At this rapid it is necessary to take a pilot, and at three 
o'clock the chief pilot and his mate came on board. They 
were gentlemanly-looking men, dressed in light grey coats, 
and they gave their orders in a very quiet but decided 
manner. The pilot's mate was certainly the most quiet and 
phlegmatic Chinaman I ever met ; but these men have to 
keep their heads uncommonly cool. Directly they came on 
board our crew became very silent, with the exception of one 
hungry-looking coolie, with a pair of breeches so baggy that 
he looked as if he could carry about all his worldly goocjs in 
them ; but the severe looks thrown at him by the rest soon 
silenced him, and he seemed to subside into his capacious 
nether garments. 

Just as all was ready a most ill-mannered junk put its 
head into my bedroom window, smashed it in, and threatened 
to do the same to the whole side of the deck-house. She 
was, however, staved clear, and eventually all damage was 
rectified with some paper and the never-failing pot of paste. 



V. A GLOOMY GORGE, 71 

At half-past four our bows entered the foam. Everything 
creaked, groaned, and strained ; the water boiled around us 
as we passed within a couple of feet of a black and pointed 
rock. The old ship took one dive into a wave, and water 
came on board at a rate that very soon would have swamped 
her ; the drum was beaten and the flag waved ; ashore the 
coolies (nearly one hundred of them) strained the rope, and 
their shouts could be heard above the roar of the foaming 
torrent ; one line parted, and gave the vessel a jerk that 
made her shiver from stem to stern ; but in ten minutes we 
were through, and anchored safely in smooth water. 

Our small junk followed without much difficulty ; the 
boat of our protector Sun received no more damage than 
the loss of her rudder ; and our gun-boat, a handy affair, 
making very light of it, we all at last found ourselves together 
above the dreaded spot. 

Ropes were then to be coiled down, and our junk made 
shipshape, before starting afresh and sailing through the 
Mi-Tsang gorge. 

This is one of the most striking of all the gorges in the 
Yang-Tzu. Huge walls of rock rise up perpendicularly 
many hundreds of feet on either hand ; the banks are strewn 
with debris ; and where a gully or ravine opens up, nothing 
is seen but savage cliffs, where not a tree, and scarcely a 
blade of grass, can grow, and where the stream, which is 
rather heard than seen, seems to be fretting in vain efforts 
to escape from its dark and gloomy prison. A fair breeze 
took us through the gorge, and we anchored for the night at 
the upper end. 

The coolies fasten themselves to the tracking line in a 
very ingenious manner. They wear a sort of cross- belt of 
cotton over one shoulder ; the two ends are brought together 
behind the back, and joined to a line about two yards long. 
At the end of this line there is a sort of button or toggle, 
with which one half-hitch is taken round the tracking rope. 
As long as the strain is kept up, it holds ; but if the coolie 
attempts to shirk his work, and slackens his line, the toggle 
comes unhitched, and his laziness becomes apparent to his 



72 A WILD CHASM, CH. 

comrades and to the overseer or ganger who superintends 
the work. 

The ganger is armed with a stick, and it is his duty, by 
shouting or gesticulating, to excite and encourage the men. 
He rushes about from one to another ; sometimes he raises 
his stick high in the air over one of them, as if he were going 
to give him a sound thrashing, but bringing it down he 
gently taps his shoulders as a sign rather of approbation than 
of wrath. When all the coolies are harnessed, they walk 
forward swaying their bodies and arms from side to side, 
and shouting a monotonous cry to keep the time. Some- 
times the path where they can track is only twenty or thirty 
yards long ; then as soon as a coolie arrives at the end he 
casts himself off, runs back to the other end, fastens himself 
on again, and begins pulling afresh. 

The Wu-Shan gorge, which we entered on the i6th and 
did not escape from until the 21st, is twenty miles in length, 
being the longest on the river. In one part of this wild 
chasm in the limestone rocks I noticed that on the left bank 
the strata stand in an almost vertical position, and on the 
right are inclined at an angle of 45° below, turning over to 
a horizontal position up above. 

On looking at these gigantic masses, which by some 
unknown force have been thus torn apart, it is easy to see 
that it is by some wonderful convulsion of nature, and not 
by the steady disintegration of a running stream, that these 
deep rents in the mountains have been formed. 

The gloomy aspect of the gorge, shut in as it is by high 
limestone mountains and precipices, where vegetation was 
scarce, and where a narrow streak of dull leaden sky was all that 
could be seen above, was enhanced by the solitude in which 
we now found ourselves, for we scarcely saw another vessel. 
There was something weird and mysterious in that long 
silent reach, where there seemed to be no room for life, and 
it was not difficult to understand how the superstitious 
fancies had arisen that had attached some mystical fable 
to almost every point. In many places there are in the face 
of the rock innumerable long vertical grooves ; the surface 
of these is highly polished by the action of the wind and 



V. KUEI-CHOUFU. 73 

weather, and they look exactly as if they had been scooped 
out with a gigantic cheese-scoop. In other places the rocks 
are split up vertically into long needles and stalagmite- 
shaped masses. 

The city of Kuei-Chou-Fu, which lies at the western 
mouth of the gorge, is surrounded by a very good wall, in 
much better condition than that of most towns. It is well 
situated on the slope of a high hill, and there are a good 
many suburbs, some permanent, and built on the high 
ground. But a very large population live in temporary huts 
of matting set up on the shingly beach. These are removed 
in the summer, as the river rises and covers all the ground 
on which they are built Kuei-Chou-Fu is the seat of con- 
siderable trade, and at the time of our visit there were a 
great number of junks at anchor off the town. We found 
provisions here more plentiful than at any place we have 
visited since leaving I-Ch'ang, and were able to buy excellent 
vegetables and very indifferent beef and mutton. 

A very large revenue is derived from the salt manufacture 
which is carried on at brine pits situated about half a mile 
below the city, on both sides of the river, where on low, 
sandy, shingly banks* close to the water's edge, holes are 
dug. The water finds its way into these through the soil, 
becoming in its passage impregnated with salt, but not 
strongly, for the taste of salt in it is scarcely perceptible. 

Bricks are made from the salt earth in the neighbour- 
hood, and with these dome-shaped ovens are built, having a 
door in front, and a hole in the top, in which a shallow iron 
pan, K, is placed. On the top of the oven, and concentric 
with the iron pan, a hollow in the brickwork makes a narrow 
trough, A c D B. Above the back of the oven, at e f, the wall 
is covered with, and made up of, cinders, slag, and earth. 
The brine is first poured into the narrow trough at a, and, 
running slowly round the top of the oven, discharges itself 
at E amongst the cinders, slag, and earth at the back. It 
permeates easily through these into the back wall of the 
oven itself, g h, and amongst the bricks of which it is built. 
Here the heat drives off the water, and leaves the salt 
deposited on and in the bricks. 



74 SALT WORKING. ch. 

After ten days or so the fire is let out, the back of the 
oven pulled down, the bricks from it carefully removed, and 
the oven built with fresh bricks. 




The stuff that has now been taken out is broken with 
hammers and stones, and put into a large wooden bucket ; 
more brine is thrown into this mass, which seems to be dis- 




integrated by it, and now breaks up, forming with the water 
and the brine a black substance of about the consistency of 
freshly-made mortar. The water is poured from the bucket 



V. ANOTHER METHOD. 75 

into the iron pan at the top of the oven, where it is eva- 
porated, and very good salt produced. 

We found the people at these pits extremely civil, very 
few troubled themselves about us, and our numerous and 
minute questions were patiently and politely answered. It 
is said that there are forty pits here, and that each pit pro- 
duces one hundred catties (130 lbs.) of salt a day ; this 
would make 890 tons of salt per annum. 

The Government buys all the salt at a rate fixed by 
itself, and then sends it over the country for sale, making an 
enormous profit. I subsequently learnt firom a banker at 
Ch'ung-Ch'ing that the salt in the province of Ssu-Ch'uan 
brought to the Government a revenue of six millions of taels 
annually — roughly, two millions sterling. The profit comes 
to about eighteen cash a pound, and, at the rate of 1,600 
cash to a tael, this would make the annual produce of salt 
in this province 237,946 tons, an amount that seems almost 
incredible. 

It may be well to record here the process of manufacture 
which I had previously seen in operation in the desolate 
salt-marshes near the coast in the north-east of China. 



D 

A. 




AAA. Tank where the earth is placed ; b. Small drain ; ccc. The receiver or 
hollow scooped out to receive the liquor draining from a ; d. Earthen ridge. 

A ridge of mud, six inches high, encloses a space twelve 
feet by four feet. At one end a little drain is formed by 
piercing the ridge, and a hollow is scooped out in the 
ground below the drain. The earth in the neighbourhood 
is all strongly impregnated with salt, and lumps of it are put 
into the tank formed by the mud enclosure. Fresh water 
is poured in, which drains slowly into the hollow, and in its 
passage becomes a strong solution of salts. The water is 
then boiled three times in flat circular dishes, and, by this 
successive evaporation, the different salts are thrown down 



76 RICHNESS OF CULTIVATION. CH, 

at different temperatures, or by the varying strength of the 
solution. Common salt, or chloride of sodium, being the 
most easily held in solution, is not deposited until the final 
operation, and thus salt of more or less purity is obtained. 

The process of evaporation is carried on in little circular 
enclosures of straw, to prevent the wind disturbing the sur- 
face of the liquor ; and in the neighbourhood the whole 
plain is dotted with these queer-looking erections. Further 
on I shall have to explain a third system of Chinese salt 
manufacture. 

We had now left the gorges, and the gentle slopes and 
open valleys of Ssii-Ch'uan, which province we had now 
fairly entered, were a pleasant change after having been so 
long shut up in the deep recesses where we could seldom 
see more than a narrow strip of sky. 

The richness and verdure of this part of the country is 
almost inconceivable ; the soil is bright red, and, where 
fallow, presents a delightful contrast to the fresh green of 
the young crops. The rape was now in flower, and field 
upon field of brilliant yellow rose one above the other. The 
terrace cultivation of rice occupied the bottoms of all the 
valleys, with patches here and there of wheat or beans. 
The houses looked comfortable and substantial, each 
enclosed in a clump of bamboo ; handsome temples stood 
by themselves in groves of trees. Every here and there a 
species of banyan (without pendants) standing by itself, with 
perhaps a little niche underneath for burning incense in, 
was a graceful ornament to the landscape. All these com- 
bined to present a scene of richness and fertility that I have 
seldom seen equalled, and which fully justified the praise 
that has been lavished by travellers on this beautiful pro- 
vince. And more striking than all is the fine open coun- 
tenance of the people, who, though very independent, are 
undoubtedly the most pleasant and gentle of all the people 
of China. 

Notwithstanding the industry of the Chinese and their 
admirable system of irrigation and terrace cultivation, there 
can be very little doubt that the exceedingly high estimate 
in which their agriculture is held is very far from being 



V. SKILL OVERRATED, 77 

deserved. This appears to have been derived from the 
French missionaries, for, as early as 1804, Barrow speaks of 
the way in which it had been overrated ; nearly all moderns 
who have been in China make the same observation, and 
yet there remains amongst. Europeans out of China the 
conviction that the Chinese possess secrets unknown to, or 
unguessed at, by Europeans. 

The real point in which the Chinese excel is in industry. 
It is industry that leads them to take such care never to 
waste the smallest trifle ; and it is industry that makes it 
worth their while to gather up the last fragments. Industry 
again enables them to dispense with any other manure than 
the sewage of the towns ; for a peasant will walk into the 
town, fetch his manure, and take it to his field himself. It 
is by industry that in the large plains the Chinese are 
enabled to keep their rice fields properly watered ; for it is 
not possible to conduct the water by canals to every part 
and every level of a wide plain ; it must therefore be lifted 
artificially, and all day long coolies are to be seen in the 
extensive plains raising water by the means of little tread- 
mills. 

But beyond their industry the Chinese can hardly lay 
claim to any superiority over other nations. They plough 
about as well as the natives of India, doing little more than 
scratch the ground. It is true that they can raise two crops 
on the same field — as, for instance, when they plant opium 
under rape, or yams beneath millet. But this is a system 
not altogether unknown to European farmers, and in the 
West Indies it is customary to grow yams underneath the 
sugar-canes. Some of Barrow's remarks appear to be worth 
quoting : — 

* They have no knowledge of the modes of improvement 

practised in the various breeds of cattle ; no instruments for 

breaking up and preparing waste lands ; no system for draiijr 

ing and reclaiming swamps and morasses. 

♦ » t • • • t 

* Levelling the sides of mountains into a succession of 
terraces is a mode of cultivation ^equently taken notice of 
by the missionaries as unexampled in Europe and peculiar 



78 NA VIGA TION, CH. 

to the Chinese, whereas it is common in many parts of 
Europe. ... Of the modes practised in Europe of im- 
proving the quality of *fruit they seem to have no just 
notion. . . . Apples, pears, plums, peaches, and apricots 
are of indifferent quality. . . . They have no method of 
forcing vegetables by artificial heat, or by excluding the cold 
air and admitting at the same time the rays of the sun 
through glass. Their chief merit consists in preparing the 
soil, working it incessantly, and keeping it free from weeds.' 

Thus wrote Barrow three quarters of a century ago. The 
Chinese are no further advanced than they were in his 
time ; and it is hardly necessary to add anything to his 
remarks, except to observe that not only have the Chinese 
* no just notion ' of improving the quality of fruit, but that 
to this day they remain in complete ignorance of the science 
of grafting. To those accustomed to the appearance of 
European countries, the absence of hedges is at first sight 
strange ; but in this country, as in many others, people 
recognise their own property by the divisions in the fields ; 
and even where there are no marks, one man will rarely 
attempt to plough beyond his own land : boundary-stones 
to properties are, however, usual It is not to be supposed 
that disputes never arise, but when they do they are 
generally, or almost always, settled by the people of the 
place. 

In navigating this portion of the river, it is continually 
necessary to cross and recross from one bank to the other, 
partly to save distance by cutting off the angles of the 
numerous sharp bends, partly to get into the back eddies 
and avoid the current, and partly because it is often impos- 
sible to track on one side, while there is a fair path on the 
other. It is this that constitutes one of the chief difficulties 
of the navigation, and leads to most of the accidents. The 
junks are always rowed across towards some place where a 
landing is practicable. As a rule there is scarcely any 
room to spare, and unless the exact point is gained, the 
swirls and eddies that often run violently amongst the reefs 
will drive the vessel against a rock. Amongst these tides it 
requires the greatest skill and nicety to shoot the junk 



V. SHIPWRECK, 79 

exactly to the desired spot, and it is under these circumstances 
that vessels are often wrecked or damaged. During the day 
we met with two accidents in this way ; on the second occa- 
sion a big hole was knocked in our ship, which as usual was 
repaired with cotton- wool and paper. 

Although in our walks we had frequently noticed little 
patches of opium, we had not seen it hitherto in any con- 
siderable quantity ; but near the city of Fu-Chou we saw it 
growing in large fields. 

The river was so low that when we arrived at the north 
end of St. George's Island (so named by Captain Blakiston), 
not only was there no passage inside it, but a reef, rarely 
visible, was now plainly to be seen beyond. Our small 
boat, and that of our official, made no attempt to pass inside 
this reef ; but our people, seized apparently with a fit of 
temporary insanity, thought that, though our junk was much 
bigger and drew more water than the others, they would try 
the inner passage. So, as we were sitting in our room dis- 
cussing the probability of our arrival that night at the city 
of Fu-Chou, there was a sudden bump that nearly shook us 
out of our chairs, followed by a babel of tongues, in which 
as usual the shrill and jarring voice of the old woman was 
painfully audible. Rushing to the window we found the 
tracking line adrift, and the vessel spinning round like a top ; 
then the scrunching and grating sound of the junk dragging 
herself over some sharp rocks was immediately followed by 
the sudden irruption of three or four coolies into our room, 
who, without any preliminary remarks, moved the furniture, 
lifted the floor boards, jumped into the hold, and taking all 
our boxes out, hastily passed them up to other coolies out- 
side. 

Looking down we now saw a large stream of water run- 
ning in through a hole in the side of the boat, and we com- 
prehended what had occurred. We had not, however, much 
time to alarm ourselves, for we were fortunately able to run 
on to a bank of mud before the vessel filled and sank, which 
she inevitably would have done in a very few minutes. 

After having cleared the hold, the men set to work baling 
with buckets, and gradually succeeded in reducing the water, 



8o STOPPING A LEAK. CH. 

after which they repaired damages. They first put on a 
kind of cataplasm of whitey-brown paper, mud, and grains 
of rice,^ over which they nailed a piece of wood, and stuffed 
the interstices with cotton-wool and bamboo shavings. As, 
of course, when the hole was made the planks were driven 
inwards, this patch was put on inside. The operation was 
a long one, and, extraordinary as the method may appear, 
it eventually proved tolerably effectual, although, from the 
amount of baling that was always subsequently necessary, 
Baber suggested that our vessel should be called the Old 
Bailey. 

We spent the afternoon walking round the island, and 
found some of the gold-washers, who above this are always 
seen in the sand and shingle beds washing for particles of 
gold. The quantity these men obtain is so small that it can 
repay none but a frugal Chinaman for the labour. Here 
the river is known as the Chin-Sha-Chiang, or River of 
Golden Sand, and this name is applied to it at least as high 
up as Bat'ang. 

In these upper reaches it is often impossible to track, 
and the method of propulsion is by oars, or in some big junks 
by a very large scull, one on each side of the vessel All 
the time that the coolies' are at this work one of them chants 
a long story in time with the strokes, and at each stroke all 
the others join in a chorus of * Hey-yea.' This will go on 
for ten minutes, when the story will end, and all will sing 
together, * Yoi hai ay-a.' The tone is continually varying, 
but the chanting either of the story or the chorus never 
ceases. The method of employing the gigantic scull is 
quite unique. Every country uses it on a small scale, but 
I never heard of huge vessels being propelled in this way 
elsewhere. In any harbour in England dirty little boys 
may be seen sculling out of the stern of a boat. The Vene- 
tian gondolier also puts into practice much the same princi- 
ple ; but here huge junks, of some hundred tons burden, 
may be seen with an enormous scull on each side, worked 
by as many as twelve or fifteen men. These sculls are sup- 

2 The Chinese use a great deal of rice in this way. 1 have seen a 
kind of concrete for building purposes made of mud and rice grains. 



V. SCULLS AND SCULLING, 8i 

ported at the fore part of the ship on a short outrigger, at the 
end of which there is a very short pin. This pin fits into 
a cup-shaped hollow in the scull, and, acting like a ball- 
and-socket joint, just keeps the scull in its place. The 
men stand in a row, fore and aft, facing the water. At the 
end of the scull there is a strong leathern thong, which, 
fastened down to the side of the junk, keeps the end of the 
scull moving in a circle. This method, which is in fact an 
application of the principle of the screw, is no doubt the 
most economical way of applying the strength of the coolies ; 
it is more frequently seen in use on junks coming down than 
on those going up the river, for in ascending there are such 
frequent changes to be made — sometimes tacking, sometimes 
laying out ropes, and only occasionally rowing — that these 
large sculls are not so convenient as oars ; but in descend- 
ing, when the middle of the stream is always kept, when 
rowing or sculling is the only method in use for driving the 
vessel, and when the whole crew is always on board, then the 
large scull is found the most suitable method of working 
the ship. 






CHAPTER YI. 

ch'ung-ch'ing to ch'£ng-t 



-FU. 



/trrival at Cli'uag-Ck'ing—M. PrmSI, Alonsgr. Desf^ches, and ihi^ 
French Missionaries: Their Cordiality —The Last of eilr Lady, f 
Skipper — We are satirised in verse, and euabled to see vursehies a 
otliers see us — News of Tibel^ UafanourahU Change of Feeling ur ■ 
Tibet as la Admission of Europeans— Lii^/iies a/ Mr. BaAer'e\ 
photographer — Preparations to itart for Ch'lng-Tu — MlaSoral^^ 
Coolie Contract— Chinese Commereial Probity— Bagga^ Arrang 
ments — Adieu to Baber—Gaod Manners sf SsS-Ch'tian Folk-^ 
yung-Ch'angSsien— Characteristics of a Reslanrant— Coolies t 
their Meal— Realistic Art — Waal of Ideality in Cliiaese CAamcftr-J 



VI. THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES. 83 

The Brine Town of Tzti-Liu-ChHng — The Christian Landlord—*- 
The Brine-wells and Fire-wells — Mode of Boring and of Drawing 
the Brine — Further Details and Out-turn of Salt— Politeness of the 
People— Red Basin of SsU-Ch^uan, 

Early in the morning of the 8th of April we reached the 
outskirts of the great city of Ch'ung-Ch'ing ; atid. passing 
through a crowd of junks of all sizes, we hauled up to 
a position under the walls, where we very soon received a 
welcome batch of letters and papers. The Chinese mer- 
chants have an excellent postal system of their own : they 
arrange amongst themselves to send couriers or runners on 
foot at* regular intervals, who travel very fast, and generally 
very securely. In this case the letters had been only four- 
teen days from Hankow, about six hundred miles by road 
During the whole time I was in China I received every 
letter and newspaper sent me, except one letter, and that 
had been forwarded vi& Russia ! 

Soon afterwards Monsieur Provot, one of the French 
missionaries, came to pay us a visit — a tall pleasant man, 
dressed in Chinese clothes, and with an artificial plait, for 
the missionaries in China invariably discard foreign clothes. 
He said that all sorts of conjectures had been rife about us 
amongst the Chinese. He asked Baber when he was going 
on to Yiin-Nan ; and, turning to me, said he hoped that I 
should like living here. When he saw that we did not 
exactly understand the remark, he explained that it was the 
general opinion that Baber had been appointed a consul in 
Yiin-Nan, and that I was to be consul at Ch'ung-Ch'ing. 
We hastened to undeceive him ; but even the missionaries 
could hardly believe in a gentleman travelling for his own 
amusement without any commission from the Government ; 
the Chinese certainly did not. 

In the afternoon we received intimation that Monseigneur 
Desfl^ches, the Bishop, was coming to pay us a visit. He 
was a small vivacious man, and a true Frenchman ; he was 
most genial, and his expressions of delight and compliments 
to Baber knew no bounds. * Ah, Monsieur Baber, it is you 
at last How you are welcome ! ! Here is a grand thing 
that you have done— ah ! it is indeed a victory. Yes ! 

G 2 



84 THE LAST OF OUR LADY SKIPPER, CH. 

yes ! a victory indeed. See how at last we have this great 
river opened to foreigners, thanks to you and your Govern- 
ment.' 

Nothing could have exceeded the sincere cordiality of 
his welcome. 

Probably besides . missionaries there were not more than 
twenty or thirty foreigners who had ever been here, and the 
arrival of a real consul, accredited by the English Govern- 
ment, was naturally a glad event to the missionaries. But, 
for all that, we could not but feel it a pleasure to be so 
warmly welcomed, and received with such true and hearty 
friendship. The Bishop talked for a long time ; first he 
told us about his flock, his converts, and his trials, of which 
he made very light, dreadful though they had been ; he 
praised the English and the English Government, and 
declared that our country was the only one in which there 
was any real religious liberty. He naturally expressed great 
pleasure that war had not broken out between China and 
England — *for,' he said, *if it had, we should all have been 
massacred here.' 

The old lady who commanded our vessel came in after- 
wards with her child, and, kneeling on the ground, burst into 
a flood of tears, declaring' that she was the most miserable 
and unfortunate woman in the world ; that she was a lone 
widow, with no one to take care of her ; that every one 
conspired against her ; that she was no match for the wicked 
people by whom she was surrounded ; and although she 
felt she had gained a high distinction by being allowed to 
bring our honourable selves up here, still her misfortunes 
had been many, and she was out of pocket by the transaction ; 
and in pathetic tones, she expressed her hopes that our 
noble and honourable excellencies would not allow her and 
her orphan child to die of starvation. As a histrionic per- 
formance it was certainly creditable, the old woman having 
extracted from us half as much again as any Chinaman 
would have paid her. With a tongue so fierce and foul that 
it inspired awe if not respect, I could imagine no one better 
able to look after Number One. 

Baber having found a house ashore, we said good-bye to 



VI. WE ARE SATIRISED. 85 

our ship, in which we had lived nine weeks. Our goods 
were first of all moved, and after everything had gone we 
followed in chairs. The coolies carrying the chairs bustled 
along at a great pace up the steep and dirty steps ; three 
soldiers were in front to clear the way ; nevertheless a good 
number of little boys followed, trying to lift the blinds and 
peep in ; but there was no hostile demonstration of any kind. 
Besides the officials, the people of this province are mostly 
either merchants or agriculturists, the literati — that generally 
highly-favoured class in China— being held in light esteem 
by the men of Ssii-Ch'uan ; and to this is probably owing the 
fact that foreigners are always treated with great politeness, 
as wherever opposition to foreigners is carried to any great 
extent, it will generally be found to be owing to the influence 
of the literati class. There were of course, some literati 
here, and so good an opportunity of showing their talents wa§ 
not to be lost. So they wrote a poem in very bad rhyme, 
which Baber translated and headed, * As others see us ' :— . 

'AS OTHERS SEE US.' 

The Sea-folk, once a tributary band, 
In growing numbers tramp across the land : — 
English and French, with titulary sounds 
As of a nation, are the merest hounds ! 
Nothing they wot of gods, in earth or sky ; 
Nothing of famous dynasties gone by ! 
One of their virgins, clasped in my embrace, 
Told me last year the secrets of their race, 
Taught me the foulness of the Western beast, 
And, fouler still, the foulness of the Priest. 
I know their features. Goblins of the West ! 
I know the elf-locks on their devil's crest 1 
Cunning artificers, no doubt, but far 
Beneath our potency in peace, or war ! 
But now our opportunity is near ; 
Learning and valour are assembled here ; 
Let all to the cathedral doors repair. 
Grapple the dogs, and never think to spare ! 
I rede ye right ! shall savages presume 
To harry China and escape the doom ? 
No ! Let us all with emulous might combine 
To crush the priests, and save the Imperial line. 
First slay the Bishop, tear away his hide, 
Hack out his bones, and let his fat be fried ; 



86 NEWS FROM TIBET. CH. 

And for the rest who have confessed the faith, 
Drag them along, and roast them all to death ! 
For when these weeds are rooted from the plain. 
No magic art can give them life again. 

The author begins by inquiring why foreigners should come 
to China ; and though he shows an unusual amount of 
knowledge by stating that the French and English are 
different people, yet he denies nationality to either one or 
the other, who, he adds, are all mere dogs, and ignorant of 
the true religion. In the sixth line he refers to the features 
of foreigners, which all Chinamen consider worse than 
hideous. Foreigners are usually also credited with red hair, 
which, in their eyes, is an abomination ; hence the reference 
to elf-locks. The author exhibits unexpected discrimination 
in crediting foreigners with being cunning artificers ; Chinese 
generally think, or pretend to think, that we are ignorant of 
everything. In the eighth line, reference is made to the 
approaching examinations, when thousands of literati and 
students for degrees would be assembled at Ch'ung-Ch'ing. 
The last line refers to the popular belief that foreigners can 
after death return to life ; and, once more showing more 
knowledge than might have been expected, combats this 
belief. 

Monsieur Provot had received a letter from Monseigneur 
Chauveau, Bishop of Ta-Chien-Lu, who said that a report 
had spread all over Western China and Tibet of the expected 
arrival of British and Russian missions at Lassa ; that 
this report had caused a most profound sensation ; that the 
Lamas were urging the people to refuse admittance to 
foreigners, and that forces were assembling on the frontier. 

There can be no doubt that a great change has come 
over the feelings of the Tibetans since the days when Bogle 
visited their country and was so well received. There are 
two causes that may have combined to make the Tibetans 
afraid of Europeans. First, our power in India has so enor- 
mously extended that the Tibetans say, with much justice, 
* Wherever an Englishman comes he soon possesses the 
country ; once we let an Englishman enter ours, we shall 
\ost \V The second adverse cause is the presence of the 



VI. TIBETAN HOSTILITY. 87 

missionaries. In the time of Bogle there had been few 
attempts on the part of these to approach Tibet, and in those 
days the Lamas had no fear of foreigners upsetting their 
power and their religion. But since then there have been 
many missionaries on the borders ; and these being the 
only foreigners the Tibetans know, they naturally fear for • 
the supremacy of their faith. 

In the days of Bogle and Manning, and even as late 
as the time of Hue, it appeared that among the Tibetans 
themselves neither Lamas nor people offered any objections 
to the approach of Europeans ; but that all the opposition, 
great as it was, came entirely from the Chinese officials. 
Since that time, however, it would appear that the Lamas, 
who absolutely rule the people, have conceived a violent 
hatred of foreigners, and have arrived at a determination to 
exclude them by every means in their power. 

The town of Ch'ung-Ch'ing is built so crookedly, and 
with such tortuous streets, that the people are compelled to 
use the terms * to the right,' * to the left,' in giving directions 
about the way to any place. Ordinarily, in China, the towns 
are built with a certain amount of regularity, and the people 
say * go north,' or * go south,' &c. They become so habitu- 
ated to this that, even out in the open country, they use the 
same expression, having, as a rule, not the most remote con- 
ception as to where the north point really is. This custom 
has had the effect of impressing on foreigners generally a 
most exaggerated belief in a Chinaman's knowledge of the 
points of the compass. 

We went for a walk one morning on the other side of 
the river, and took the photographer with us and left him to 
his own devices. When we returned home he told us that 
the people had thrown stones and bricks at the camera. 
He said that his attempts had not been very successful. 
The Chinese people believe that foreigners make a juice out 
of children's eyes for photographic purposes ; they say, * A 
man, or a dog, or a horse cannot see without eyes ; how then 
can that machine ? If it has not got eyes of its own, it must 
have the eyes of somebody else.' Their logic is unanswer- 
able, especially the brickbats and stones. The next time 



88 PHOTOGRAPHIC FAILURES, CH. 

that Baber's photographer essayed his art, he went out under 
the guidance of a fat Christian, M^ by name, who could talk 
to the people in their own dialect— the photographer, who 
was a Shanghai man, finding the language of Ssii-Ch'uan 
quite unintelligible. Md returned triumphant from the joint 
expedition ; his part of the business had been satisfactorily 
accomplished ; but the photographer's efforts can hardly be 
said to have been crowned with success. He could not 
show us much except some clouded glasses, and I never 
heard that any pictures were subsequently achieved. 

I now began to make preparation for a journey to Ch'eng- 
Tu, the capital of Ssii-Ch'uan. 

There are no mules in this part of the province, and it 
was therefore necessary to look for coolies ; but, as I was able 
to send most of my goods by water, I did not require a 
great number of carriers. I had to buy a chair also for 
myself to ride in, because, in this province^ a chair is the 
usual means of locomotion ; and to have travelled otherwise 
would not only have been against the inexorable law of 
custom, but would have entailed a loss of dignity that might 
have been inconvenient. After I had once started, however, 
I rarely rode in the chair, except when entering or leaving a 
large town ; in the country I invariably walked, or rode on 
a pony. The chair was, nevertheless, invaluable for carrying 
a few things in, for with four coolies, and no one riding in it, 
it could always travel very fast, and in the plains could even 
keep up with me when I was walking, so that when I arrived 
at my destination, the chair was seldom far behind, and I 
had not to wait an interminable time for all the odds and 
ends, writing and drawing materials, &c., &c., that I wanted 
immediately. 

In a large city like Ch'ung-Ch'ing there was no difficulty 
in finding any number of coolies, and Chin-Tai soon found 
a coolie-master willing to provide for all my wants. An 
elaborate agreement that would have refreshed the heart of 
a lawyer in Chancery Lane was now drawn up between this 
coolie-master and myself : detailing specifically what I might 
and what I might not do ; the places at which we were to 
halt, and how long we were to stop at them ; and the 



VI. COMMERCIAL PROBITY, 89 

extra amount to be paid, in case I wilfully delayed on the 
journey. The coolie-master on his side pledged himself to 
use all reasonable care and forethought for the safety of my 
goods, and to arrive at places specified within a certain time. 
But, unlike English documents, this charter, once drawn up 
and verbally agreed to by the coolie-master and myself, re- 
quired neither witness nor signature ; but, being confided to 
the depths of my pocket, was as valid, according to Chinese 
usage, as the most formal document that ever issued from 
Lincoln's Inn. 

This confidence that people in China have in one 
another is a feature in the character of the people that has 
been strangely unnoticed by foreign writers. Merchants in 
China rely implicitly on one another ; indeed, if they did 
not, all business would come to an end at once. In my 
position I was over and over again compelled to trust the 
Chinese with large sums of money without receiving any 
receipt, and in other ways to rely on their probity to a far 
greater extent than I should have trusted Europeans, or 
Chinese if I could have avoided it But I was never de- 
ceived in the smallest degree, nor did I lose anything during 
all the time I was travelling. Of course if I had set my 
wits against those of the Chinese I should have been taken 
in continually ; and if I had tried to drive bargains, I should 
certainly never have succeeded. A Chinaman, if he is selling 
anything, will always ask as much as he thinks he can get, even 
if he knows it to be ten times the value of the article. But 
amongst the respectable Chinese there is a strong feeling of 
commercial morality. It probably arises, not from any 
natural inborn virtues, but from the necessities of the case ; 
for there is no reason to suppose that the Chinese race 
forms an exception to the general rule of humanity, the heart 
of which is declared to be by the highest Authority deceitful 
above all things, and desperately wicked.' If a Chinese 
weaver adulterated his silk, it would be known at once, he 
would be a marked man, and his trade would cease. If the 
English manufacturer never sold his goods at a greater 
distance than one hundred miles from his doors, it is pro- 
bable that he also would find the advantages of honesty in 



90 ADIEU TO BABER. CH. 

his policy. Necessity is not only the mother of invention, 
but the origin of all custom ; and custom in time becomes, 
not law, but something even more binding. 

When I called to say good-bye to the missionaries, I 
found that they were firmly persuaded that political missions 
from every quarter were being poured into Tibet, and that 
Baber and I were connected in some mysterious manner 
with the inscrutable purposes of these expeditions. When 
I assured them that I had nothing whatever to do with 
Government or Government missions, and that I was a 
private individual travelling for my own objects, they smiled 
incredulously, as if unwilling to be thought simple-minded 
enough to believe so foolish a story ; and, even with the 
proverbial politeness of Frenchmen, they could hardly help 
showing that they thought Albion was as perfide as ever ; and 
if reasonable Europeans could not believe it, how could it be 
expected that the Chinese would ? In fact, they never did ; 
from first to last I passed for an important official on some 
secret service, and was invariably treated as such. 

On the 26th of April everything was at length ready 
for a start, and I found coolies sitting about, waiting for 
their loads to be adjusted. A chair that I had bought was 
now fresh from the painter and decorator; there were, 
besides, small chairs that were hired for the servants, and a 
pony about eleven hands high was ready to be saddled. 
Twenty coolies sufficed for my luggage ; besides these there 
were four coolies for my chair, four for the chairs of the 
servants, and one man, who glorified himself with the title 
of Ma-Fu, with the pony. 

With a hearty shake of the hand I said good-bye to 
Baber, whom I hoped to see, in the course of a few weeks. 
Without this expectation I should not have parted with a 
light heart from one who had been a cheery companion for 
so many weeks. But * Dieu dispose,' and I still have to 
look forward to the pleasure I hoped for so long ago. 

• I started in my chair, and as, with the exception of a 
short ride in the city, this was the first time I had tried this 
method of progression, I found that dignity and discomfort 
were in about equal proportions, for, to. one unaccustomed, 



VI. GOOD MANNERS. 9' 

the motion, especially in hilly countries, is very disagreeable. 
When I was well clear of the town I descended, and found 
walking preferable. The road ran for some distance by the 
side of the river, winding about amongst hills five hundred 
to a thousand feet high, sometimes shaded by hedges of 
pomegranates from the sun, which was now becoming 
powerful. The hill-sides were dotted with the white-walled 
Ssil-Ch'uan farmhouses in their clumps of bamboos, looking 
the very emblems of peace. Yew trees often sheltered fine 
large graves, and here and there we passed one of the small 




religious shrines which Europeans call joss-houses.' Every^ 
thing was very green, fresh, and, as nearly all the rice-fields 
were under water, there was very little dusL The coolies in 
the fields were busy at work raising water from the lower to 
the upper terraces, sitting under the shelter of big umbrellas; 
and from the top of a hill these looked like a number of 
gigantic mushrooms dotted about over the plain below. 
Every day I was more impressed with the gentleness of 
' See illusltation, p. 8z. 



92 A TEA-SHOP, C«. 

the people. After having been accustomed to find myself 
universally regarded as a fair and legitimate object of ridicule 
and wonder, it seemed quite strange to be able to come in 
of an afternoon and sit down to write for a couple of hours 
quietly before dinner. In many places in this part of the 
country I was left as much alone as I should have been in 
England — certainly much more so than a Chinaman, in his 
long coat, long plait, queer shoes, and huge spectacles, 
would be in any English market town. 

At Jung-Ch'ang-Hsien, a town which we passed through 
on the 29th, I had the misfortune to rest at a hotel where 
the number of travellers was so great that the place appeared 
to be a small city. 

The travelling Chinaman, when he has arrived at his 
destination, usually divides his time between eating, drinking, 
smoking, and sleeping ; he seldom enjoys any excitement, 
not from lack of power so much as from want of opportunity. 
The afternoons and evenings of these people must be 
appalling in their monotony, and melancholy illustrations 
of the truth of Talleyrand's prophetic warning to the young 
man who did not play cards. 

It would have been unreasonable to expect the three 
or four dozen inhabitants of this inn to miss so rare an 
occasion of amusing themselves, and such an expectation 
would have been completely falsified. My door, therefore, 
was soon blocked up with stolid gazers, and the somewhat 
unsavoury air that had previously entered entirely excluded. 

A little further on I turned into a tea-shop for breakfast, 
and sat down at a table, on which there were about half a 
dozen cups with a pinch of tea at the bottom of each. The 
boiling water was poured into one of them immediately, and 
the refreshing draught was ready as soon as it was cool 
enough for my pampered throat. One of the waiters went 
round the room every five minutes or so and filled up the 
cups with boiling water from a huge kettle. While my 
breakfast was being cooked I looked round. The tea-house, 
open along the whole length of its front, faced the road, but 
a wooden wall, coming down from the roof to within seven 
feet of the ground, kept out the heat and glare ; and a thick 



VI. COOLIES AT THEIR MEAL, 9J 

straw matting, projecting from the top of the open part, cast 
a grateful shade across the road, tempting the voyagers to 
stop and have a dish of tea. As I sat facing the front, a 
short, benevolent-looking old man, with a grey beard and 
mustachio, stood behind a counter at my left At his back 
there were a number of small square drawers, and above 
these some porcelain jars and bottles contained the various 
ingredients for preparing his savoury dishes. Some big 
wooden tubs for rice or grain were at his side, and a little 
child holding his hand joined in the gaze of wonder that 
some coolies, leaning against the front of the counter, be- 
stowed on me, as over their trivial pipes they discussed my 
remarkable appearance. The cooking-place was on my right, 
with a smoke stack passing out through a hole in the roof. 
The centre of the room was occupied by small square tables, 
and there all my coolies were having their breakfast, and 
enjoying the unwonted treat of plenty of time to eat it in. 
That they found this a luxury I could guess from the way in 
which some of them dallied with their beans before com- 
mencing serious operations on the rice, instead of shovelling 
the latter down in the fashion of the boat coolies on our old 
junk. The people here seemed very fond of broad beans 
roasted. I watched several of the coolies commence their 
meal with a dish of these ; one man in particular took them 
up one by one with his chopsticks, and chose them carefully 
from his little dish with the air of a gourmet who feels that, 
having plenty of leisure, it will never do to throw away the 
opportunity of playing the epicure. Directly on my right, 
and near one corner of the room, a huge tub, kept warm by 
steam, contained the rice (boiled in some other place) ; and 
while I was looking on, a coolie came in with a fresh tub, 
taking away the other, which had just been finished. An 
attendant dips a large wooden ladle into the steaming tub, 
and takes out the rice ; with an artistic turn of the wrist he 
puts it into a bowl about as large as a small slop-basin, and, 
giving it a dexterous pat, the clean white grains are piled up 
in a smooth and regular dome above the edge of the cup. 
This tub of rice gives plenty of work to the attendant. 
Another coolie demands a second portion. In an instant 



94 REALISTIC ART, CH. 

the waiter fills a bowl, walks quickly to the customer, and 
transfers the contents to the other cup without dropping a 
grain. The scene is full of life : the busy attendants with 
their bowls of rice, or pots of boiling water ; others cooking, 
and more taking away the bowls and dishes that have been 
used. All the time coolies on their journey pass in front to 
and fro at the quick, half- walk, half-run, sort of gait they 
adopt Now a big. chair, with red outside, and an official 
hat fastened behind, followed by a man with a red umbrella, 
proclaims an official of some importance ; but the drawn 
blinds prevent my seeing what he is like. Now a very small 
and shabby two-coolie chair comes along, with a fat China- 
man half asleep and stupid with several hours of this un- 
pleasant motion. Perhaps the coolies stop here for their 
food ; but the sallow Chinaman sits stolidly without moving 
until they have finished Most of the people at this time of 
day pass the tea-house, but some turn in for a little refresh- 
ment ; and others, walking straight to where a tub of cold 
water is standing, rince out their mouths, and proceed on 
their journey. As a counterfoil to all this busy activity, 
across a field, I can see, about a quarter of a mile away, 
a clump of bamboos lazily waving their tops to the gentle 
breeze, and sheltering a house the roof of which just appears 
above a hedge of . pomegranates and brambles. This is 
backed up by a fine clump of firs and willows, standing in 
bold relief against the liquid blue of a range of hills in the 
extreme distance. 

The P'ai-Lou, or triumphal arches that are so frequent in 
Ssu-Ch'uan, are generally of stone, and on the superstructure 
at the top are elaborate carvings in relief; these are most 
artistic in their execution, and represent officials administer- 
ing justice, and various other scenes of domestic and public 
life, in which the expr ssions of the faces are caught with a 
wonderfully sympathetic spirit, and delineated with a masterly 
hand. 

Yet in everything there is the Chinaman's want of 
ideality ; his carvings represent nothing but what he has 
absolutely seen over and over again with his own eyes ; he 
is quite incapable of forming an idea of anything beyond. 



VI. OF COURSE. 95 

His pictures are the same : insects of life size, magpies on 
willow trees, bridges, ponds, and hills, all realised, but with 
not enough imagination in the whole to produce even per- 
spective. Even in the representation of Hell we saw the 
other day there was no imagination. The demons were 
people such as themselves, with painted faces ; and the 
tortures such as might be inflicted by their own officials. 
Of Heaven they have no idea, and that they never try to con- 
ceive. Everything they do is material and realistic, and 
imagination does not exist in their nature. From imagina- 
tion springs the power of inception, or, in other words, 
originality ; and, as might be expected, or rather as must 
follow by a natural sequence, the Chinese are remarkable for 
their want of originality. In the course of ages, as the 
necessity arises, as population increases, and life becomes 
more difficult, the law of the survival of the fittest may come 
into play, and the reign of intellect begin. But at present, 
with the want in the national character of the power of 
inception, they must be for a long time to come dependent 
on the aid of foreigners. 

I came from Marseilles to Hong-Kong with two Qiinese 
who had been to Europe to learn European naval tactics, 
European ship-building, and European navigation. They 
were, returning to their country no doubt highly instructed 
and much benefited ; but one of them, by the permission 
of the captain, who wondered greatly, copied the log of the 
ship careftiUy every day. He was under the impression that 
if he should ever take a ship from Marseilles to Hong-Kong 
he would be able to do it by carefully sailing the same 
course. 

On the 2nd of May, after a journey of seven days, we 
came in sight of Tzii-Liu-Ching, famous for its immense pro- 
duction of salt. Approaching this town the number of tall 
scaffoldings around it at once attracts the notice of a traveller : 
some right on top of the hills, others on the sides, and a few 
close down to the river. At a distance they look just like 
the tall chimneys of some manufacturing town in England. 
The town is prettily situated on the river, which is about one 
hundred yards wide, and is her^ bunded back ; its banks 



96 A CHRISTIAN HOST. CH. 

are steep, and run straight up to little hills about two 
hundred or three hundred feet high, where, as the cultiva- 
tion is not very close, there is a great deal of fresh green 
grass. 

The inhabitants of this neighbourhood have the reputa- 
tion of being very rude, but I nowhere in China found more 
civil people. The town is a wretched place, and its people 
bear all the indications of their miserable poverty. I had 
what seemed an interminable ride through narrow and more 
than usually dirty streets, all of them staircases of the steepest 
and worst description. The shops w^ere very infetior, and 
the only novelty I remarked was a Chinaman sitting in an 
easy-chair. As a rule, a Chinaman sits in the usual high, 
stiff, straightbacked chair, so painfully familiar to any 
European who has penetrated into these regions. I never 
before saw anything like a lounge, but here there were low 
chairs with sloping backs, and a semi-circular projection to 
fit into the neck, very like the cane chairs so much in use by 
Europeans in Singapore or Ceylon. Amongst the Chinese, 
none but very old men use them, and a youth would be 
guilty of the most gross disrespect who should seat himself 
on an easy-chair, or even loll about on an uneasy one. 

My sedan-chair was put down for some minutes in the 
middle of the main street ; a few woe-begone-looking people 
and children with pinched faces came to look, but seemed 
to take but little interest ; and when we moved off and 
turned into a bye-lane, not a dozen people thought it worth 
while to follow me to the inn. 

This was really a fine building, with three courts separated 
from one another by strong gates. I had a capital room, 
opening on to a yard where there were a few flowers. The 
surrounding rooms were occupied by respectable well-to-do 
people ; and the quiet of the place was most delightful after 
the noise and hubbub that there is usually in the courtyard 
of an inn, even when a crowd of men and boys are not fight- 
ing for a look at the foreigner. In most inns in this patrt of 
China the front court is more or less of a restaurant ; people 
are continually coming and going, coolies shouting, customers 
quarrelling with the landlord about a cash, itinerant vendors 



VI. ^ BRINE-WELLS, 97 

of patties and cakes shouting out their wares, all at the top 
of their voices ; while here there was nothing but the croak 
of the bull-frog, and the distant bark of some unquiet dog, 
varied by the low hum of conversation in an adjoining room. 

I found the dogs about here more savage than the 
ordinary Chinese cur, who usually beats a speedy retreat at 
the motion of picking up a stone. But there was a sense of 
independence and a democratic spirit about the dogs of this 
neighbourhood. They had no respect for anything, not 
even for good blood ; and the life of poor Tib, whose valour 
was not equal to his breeding, was made very burdensome 
to him. 

The landlord of this inn was a Christian, or, as Chin-Tai 
put it, *he liked the French Joss.' He expressed great 
pleasure at seeing me, and, after my dinner, came to pay me 
a visit Our conversation soon descended into the trivialities 
usual under similar circumstances. I asked him if he 
knew what was the annual produce of salt. * Oh, yes,' he 
said, * a great deal.' * But how many catties ? ' I continued. 
He thought that there would be a vast number. But did 
he not know what number ? Yes, for there were a great 
many people always at work. * But how many pits are 
there ? ' I said, trying another tack. He thought that there 
might be a thousand, but of these a large proportion were 
not working. 

He then looked at all my things, asked what everything 
was for, and, above all, he wanted to know the cost of each. 
Amongst my dressing apparatus there was a relic of European 
travel that could hardly be considered a sine qud non in 
China, a railway key. He asked Chin-Tai what it was. 
Chin-Tai was quite equal to the occasion, and I was much 
interested at the readiness with which he evolved out of his 
own inner consciousness a long and elaborate dissertation 
on the uses of an article of which by no possibility could 
he have known anything. 

Eventually, when his curiosity was satisfied, I extracted 
from him, after much cross-examination, that salt went from 
here to I-Ch'ang, Ch'ung-Ch'ing, and Kwei-Yang-Fu, but 
not to Ch'^ng-Tu-Fu. He told me that the people were 

H 



98 FIRE- WELLS. CH. 

wretchedly poor, and said that no foreigner had been here 
before except the French missionaries, who always dress, 
talk, and travel as Chinese. Before going away he informed 
me that he liked my cigars and my claret, and hinted that a 
small quantity of either one or the other would be a welcome 

gift. 

Next morning he came again to take me to see his salt 

wells, for he was part proprietor of a very extensive estab- 
lishment. We crossed the river by a good bridge, and after 
partaking of the inevitable cups of tea we proceeded to the 
works. Here some of his people were engaged in boring 
one of the holes ; this was already 2,170 feet- deep, the 
average rate of boring being, if all went well, about two feet 
a day ; but they said that they often broke their things, that 
accidents happened, and that it was thirteen years since this 
well had been commenced. 

The jumper for boring is fastened to a bamboo-rope 
attached to one arm of a lever ; the weight of three men 
who step on to the other arm raises the instrument, the men 
then leap nimbly off the lever on to some wooden bars fixed 
for the purpose, and the jumper falls. Another workman 
stands at the mouth of the bore, and each time the jumper 
is lifted he gives a slight twist to the rope ; the rope un- 
twisting gives a rotatory motion to the jumper. This opera- 
tion is continued all day, the coolies employed showing the 
most extraordinary and untiring activity. 

A few yards off was a finished fire-well, somewhat deeper 
than the one in progress ; a bamboo-tube about three feet 
long had been put into the mouth of this boring, and some 
clay was plastered over the upper end to prevent the bamboo 
from burning. Up this well, and through the bamboo, the 
gas ascends from the bowels of the earth, and is lighted at 
the top ; when the light was extinguished the odour of the 
gas was very powerful of sulphur, and very slight of naphtha ; 
the latter smell was imperceptible when the gas was 
burning. 

At no great distance was a brine-pit, which, I was 
informed, was two thousand and some hundreds of feet in 
depth, and about three inches, or perhaps a little more, 



VI. METHOD OF WORKING, 99 

in diameter at the top ; immediately over the mouth was 
erected a scaffolding a little over a hundred feet high. To 
draw the brine from this well, a bamboo-tube, a hundred 
feet long, open at the top and closed at the bottom by a 
valve, serves as a bucket. A rope, fastened to the upper 
end of this, passes over a pulley at the top of the scaffolding 
and round an enormous drum ; this drum, turning on a 
vertical axis, was eight or nine feet high, and about twenty 
feet in diameter. Four buffaloes are yoked to this, and thus 
the rope is wound up. Near the end the rope ^s marked 
with bits of straw, like a lead-line on board ship, so that a 
man watching knows when it is near the end, and warns the 
drivers. The process of raising this bamboo once, occupied 
ten minutes. There is a driver to each buffalo. The bam- 
boo being raised from the well, a coolie pushes the end over 
a receptacle, opens the valve with his fingers, and allows the 
brine to escape. When the water has been let out, the 
buffaloes are unyoked, and the bamboo and rope descend 
of themselves. This sends the drum round with a frightful 
velocity, which, in rotating, of course produces a violent 
wind. The * break ' for this is simplicity itself— a few strips 
of bamboo pass horizontally half round the drum, and both 
ends are made fast to the wall. These strips hang quite 
loose, until a coolie, leaning against them, tautens them up, 
checks the pace of the drum, and stops it in a very few 
seconds. The brine thus raised is conducted to the 
evaporating- pans over the fire- wells I had already seen. 

In this establishment, by no means the largest in the 
place, there are employed forty coolies and fifteen buffaloes, 
the latter in a stable kept beautifully clean (a most remark- 
able thing in China). They produce here 8,000 to 10,000 
catties (10,000 to 13,000 lbs. avoirdupois) of salt per month ; 
the proprietor pays no duty, but sells it for eighteen to twenty 
cash a catty {\d, to \d, per lb. avoirdupois) ; the purchaser 
then sends it away by coolies, paying duty at the barriers, 
300 cash (13^^.) per coolie-load, whatever that happens to 
be — it generally runs from about 160 to 200 catties (210 to 
260 lbs. avoirdupois). 

In some places they have the fire without the brine, and 

H 2 



loo OUT-TURN OF SALT CH. 

at a place about five miles up the river there is brine but no 
fire ; the brine is therefore brought down fi-om here in boats, 
of which I counted about one hundred lying by the bund 
constructed to keep a sufficiency of water in the river for 
these vessels. 

At the top of the hill, close to the town, there is a fire- 
well without any brine. The principle of the pump being 
unknown, the method of raising the water is the clumsy and 
laborious one of a row of small buckets passing round two 
wheels, one at the bottom and the other at the top of a 
tower, of which there are a good many about in different 
directions. A blindfold mule going round and round at the 
top is the motive power. The water is thus raised twenty to 
thirty feet at a time, a trough leading from the top of one 
to the bottom of the next tower. In this case the brine was 
lifted seven stages before it finally reached the fire. 

Some years ago some Chinese connected with a Euro- 
pean firm attempted to introduce pumps. They only had 
their heads broken for their pains by the coolies, who 
declared that their labour was being taken away from them ; 
since this no further innovations have been attempted. 
Baron Von Richthofen states that these wells are lined with 
tubes of cedarwood. I did not see any lying about, nor was 
I told of them ; but my interpreter was nothing but a servant, 
and it was difficult to obtain technical information. Baron 
von Richthofen also states that when a portion of the rock 
is mashed, clear water is poured into the hole, and the turbid 
water raised by a bamboo-tube. 

The number of pits in this place must be greater than 
the thousand hazarded by the innkeeper. The produce of 
a thousand would be from fifty thousand to seventy thou- 
sand tons per annum ; but as Tzu-Liu-Ch'ing must supply 
from a third to a half of the salt manufactured in the pro- 
vince, and as, according to the statistics of the Ch'ung- 
Ch^ng banker, that amounts to 238,000 tons, the out-turn 
at these wells must be from 79,000 to 119,000 tons— from 
1,200 to 2,300 pits would be necessary to furnish that 
quantity. 

I found that the people of Tzu-Liu-Ching entirely belied 



VI. NEAR CH'^NG-TU, 



lOI 



their bad reputation. I stood about the fire-wells for a 
couple of hours without being pressed upon in the least ; 
and I never saw people anywhere with a more respectful 
demeanour. 

The incidents of the remaining part of the route to 
Ch'eng-Tu scarcely call for narration. We travelled plea- 
santly along through what Baron von Richthofen calls the 
Red Basin of Ssii-Ch'uan — and a most appropriate title it is. 
The formation here is a layer of dark red clayey sandstone ; 
and wherever the soil is bare the ground is of a rich dark 
red-brown colour. The tops of the hills are nearly all on 
the same level, some three hundred or four hundred feet 
above the river. On their upper slopes there is a good deal 
of wood and coarse grass ; and the bright green of a kind of 
low thorn contrasts pleasantly with the deep red of the clay. 
In the bottoms of the valleys, which are tolerably flat, all 
the ground is cultivated ; but the formation does not seem 
well adapted for rice. The villages and towns were scarce, 
the country-houses less numerous, and the traffic on the road 
was not nearly so great as during the first few days after 
leaving Ch'ung-Ch'ing. 




CHAPTER VH. 

A LOOP-CAST TOWARDS THE NORTHERN ALPS. 
Ch'fng-Tu to Sung.P'aH-T'iag. 
Arrival al C/i'lng- Tu— Public Exaininattotis — ArrangemtHts with Mr. 
Mesny- — Pleasures of French Society — Frofesed Excursion to the 
Norlh^The Maii-Tal, or Barbarian Tribes— Leaivt Ch-lng-Tu-Fa 
— The Escort— Irrigated and Wooded Country— Halt at Kuan- 
Hsitii^ Frantic Curiosity of People, but no Jneivilify — Irriga- 
tion Works — Coal-beds— Hsin-Wln-Fing—Wln-Ch'uan-Hsien- 
First Man-Tat miage—Pan-Ch'iao— Traces of War— Relentless 
Advance of Chinese — Miraealotis Sand Ridge^Hsia-Pu-Kuan — 
Rapid Spread of the Potato— Excsirsien to Li-Fan-Fs in the Man- 
T%a Hills— Sceius that recall the Eliurz-Carefully-niade Hill 
Road— The ' Satiga' of the Himalayas— Village of Ku-Ch'tng— Feat 
Streams— Musk Deer— Arrival at Li-Fan-Fu-The Search for a 
Man-TiH Village— Man-TsS here a Term of Reproach—The FRan 
Tnhes and their Language— Return to Hsin-Pu- Kuan— Resume 
Valley of Hsi-Ho {or • Mia River'\—Wln.Ch'tHg— The Himalayan 
Haul-Bridge in Use- Polite Curiosity at Ma-Chou— Grandeur of 
the ' Nine Nails* Mountain— The Su-Mu, or While Bathariatis— 
Alpine Setnery—Tieh-Chi.ying—The Yak seen at last— Glorious 
Mountain View {Mount Shih- Pan- Fang) — ^'nanHna-Kuan — 



CH. VII. PROPOSED EXCURSION. 103 

Delicious Tea — Smoking in SsU-Ch^uan — Country of the Si-Fan — 
Sung' P an- THng ^Reports of Game — Crops — Butter^ Fish, Yak- 
Beef^ Bitter Alpine Winds — Foreign Remedies Appreciated — The 
Traveller quits the Valley ( * Min River ' ) and turns Eastward — 
Si-Fan Lamassery — Herds of Cattle and Yaks — DesolcUe Hospice at 
Fing-Tung-Kuan — Tibetan Dogs — Repotted Terrors of the Snow- 
Passes — Summit of the Plateau of Hsiieh-Shan — Descent begins — 
Forest Destruction — Verdure of Eastern Slopes — Splendid Azaleas — 
Slaughter by the Si- Fan — Luxuriant Gorges — Miracle- Cave — Hsiao- 
Ho- Ying — Iron Suspension Bridges — MauvaisPas — Lung-An-Fu — 
P^ing-I-Pu — Boat Descent of River [Ta-Ho) — End of Excursion. 

We entered Ch'eng-Tu on the 9th, at a somewhat unfortu- 
nate moment, for the examinations were now being held. 
These always bring thousands into the capital from every 
part of the province ; and, in addition to this, the provincial 
governor-general was just leaving, and a new one being 
installed. Consequently, the city was full of Fu-T'ais, Chen- 
T'ais, Hsieh-T'ais, and T^ais of every description, not to 
mention the lesser lights of Fus, Chous, and Hsiens. Every 
hotel was crowded, and after hunting up and down the town 
Chin-Tai had only been able to get a place in an exceedingly 
dirty inn outside the east gate. The walls were hung with 
cobwebs of the blackest description. There was a bedstead 
with some carving at the top, the interstices in which were 
nearly filled with dust and dirt ; bits of string hanging from 
the beams had nearly lost their original character from the 
coating of filth that had accumulated on them, and every 
gust of wind brought down a shower of dirt from the roof 
on to my head. Under the bed I dared not look. This 
unwieldy piece of furniture had probably stood there for 
years, and, according to Chinese custom, whenever the room 
had been swept during that time, the sweepings had been 
left underneath it. To clean the room would have taken at 
least a couple of days, and to have half cleaned it would, by 
stirring up the accumulated abominations, only have made 
matters worse. 

When at Shanghai, I had been in communication with 
Mr. Mesny, an officer in the service of the Chinese. He 
ultimately arranged to join me at Ch'eng-Tu, and subse- 
quently travelled with me to Ehamo ; and to his intimate 



I04 THE MAN-TZty, OR BARBARIANS. CH; 

knowledge of the language and ways of the people, I am 
mainly indebted for the friendly relations we always main- 
tained with the Chinese officials. At present, he was still 
buried in the depths of the province of Kwei-Chou, although 
I was under the impression that he was well on his way to 
Ch'^ng-Tu, and expected him every day. Hearing nothing 
of him, however, I determined, instead of waiting idly for 
him in Ch'^ng-Tu, to make an expedition to Sung-P*an-T4ng. 
The trip was sure to be an interesting one ; no European, 
not even the missionaries, had ever been to Sung-P'an-T'ing, 
and it was almost on the borders of the Koko-Nor district. 

Paying a visit to Monseigneur Pinchon, the Bishop of 
Ch'^ng-Tu, I found it a delightful change from my own com- 
pany to that of some half-dozen lively Frenchmen. The mode 
of the meal, as they put it, was moitie Chinoise^ moitie Euro- 
peenne ; one missionary was eating rice with chopsticks, and 
cracking jokes with a Chinese minister who also sat at table ; 
another was washing down a Chinese dish with a glass of Tinto, 
which, contrary to usual custom, was taken in my honour. 
Excellent bread was on the table, for wherever a Frenchman 
is found there is sure to be good bread ; and Chinese dishes 
succeeded others that might rather have come from the 
Boulevards than from a kitchen in Ch'eng-Tu. The meal 
passed very pleasantly, and afterwards I spent the greater 
part of the afternoon in the delights of hearing a familiar 
tongue. The Bishop informed me that Li-Fan-Fu, a place 
which I proposed to visit on my way to Sung-P'an-T'ing, was 
inhabited by the Man-Tzii — or Barbarians, as the Chinese 
call them ; a people who, amongst other pleasing theories, 
were possessed of the belief that if they poisoned a rich man, 
his wealth would accrue to the poisoner ; that, therefore, the 
hospitable custom prevailed amongst them of administering 
poison to rich or noble guests ; that this poison took no 
effect for some time, but that in the course of two or three 
months it produced a disease akin to dysentery, ending in 
certain death. 

Monseigneur Pinchon advised me to take my food from 
Ch'^ng-Tu, and to avoid the temptations of feasting as a 
guest of this singular people. This superstition is almost 



viL CIVIL WAR. 105 

an exact parallel to one related by Polo as in vogue amongst 
a tribe in Western Yiin-Nan {^ide Yule's * Marco Polo/ 2nd 
ed. vol ii. p. 64). It may be doubted, however, whether 
much more of the custom remains than the tradition. 

There are altogether eighteen of the Barbarian tribes 
spreading over the west of Ssii-Ch'uan. Each tribe has its 
king — one of them a queen — and they live almost entirely 
by agriculture and cattle-keeping. The king usually derives 
a considerable revenue from his lands, and every family in 
his kingdom has to send one man for six months to work on 
his estate. In other cases he receives an annual amount of 
eggs, flour, or wheat from each household. He has absolute 
power over all his land, assigns certain portions of it to 
certain families, and, if they displease him, or he has any 
other reason for doing so, he displaces them at once, and 
puts others in their stead, all the houses and farm-buildings 
passing to the new comer. 

One of these royalties, that of Mou-Pin, was at this time 
distracted by disturbances — a civil war, bandits, robbers, 
soldiers, and evils of every kind. The king had died not 
long previously, leaving a wife with three daughters, and a 
sister-in-law, who set herself up as the protector of an ille- 
gitimate infant son. There was at once a disputed succes- 
sion, for, by the law, a female could not sit on the throne. 
The sister-in-law and the wife both wanted the ruling power. 
The sisfer-in-law succeeded in stealing the seal of State. 
She obtained some boy, who was permitted to go and pay 
his respects to the widow as sovereign, and who, while 
making his obeisance, managed to snatch the seal and escape 
to the sister-in-law. 

A war then broke out, some people taking part with the 
queen widow, and others with the sister-in-law. As usual 
in such cases, all the bad characters flocked to the place to 
feed on the booty ; both the queen widow and the sister-in- 
law were obliged to take refuge in Ch'eng-Tu, and now the 
whole kingdom was given over to pillage and the villanies 
always accompanying a civil war. 

After spending a day or two in completing arrangements, 
I sallied out of the north-west gate of the city on the i8th, 



io6 CHINESE BjRAVES, CH. 

with eight baggage coolies, besides the usual chair coolies, 
and four Ting-Chais, or official messengers, furnished for 
my protection and guidance by the magistrate. I proceeded 
in great state with my four satellites, who shouted to every 
one they met to get out of the way. Perhaps a poor man 
would come staggering along with an enormous load on a 
wheelbarrow, just where the track for these machines was 
very narrow, but where there was plenty of room for me at 
the side. Nothing, however, would satisfy my gentlemen, 
unless he cleared right out of the course ; and once, when 
one of these unfortunates was not quick enough, they upset 
the wheelbarrow into the brook at the side of the road. I 
remonstrated with them, but it had no effect whatever, as 
they had made up their minds to maintain their own dignity, 
however little I might care about mine. 

Whenever I got on and off my pony, as much fuss was 
made about me as about a jockey mounting for the Derby : 
one man to each stirrup, another to the pony's head, a 
fourth to his tail, and the Ma-Fu to give me a lift, as if the 
animal was about eighteen instead of eleven hands high. 

We halted for the night at Pi-Hsien, the magistrate 
of which town insisted on sending me an escort of twenty 
soldiers. After some remonstrance I succeeded in reducing 
to ten the number of these useless but exceedingly pic- 
turesque braves. 

Over the ordinary dress they wore a loose red tunic with- 
out sleeves ; four of them were armed with spears terminating 
in an arrangement like Neptune's trident ; and four others 
with weapons ending in short square swords. The heads of 
all the poles were adorned with large rosettes of blue and red, 
with ends hanging down. The other two men bore flags, 
one in front and one behind. 

The Hsien also sent his steward, a functionary of much 
importance. This man rode a pony, and gave me a good 
deal of assistance — praise that I can hardly lavish on the 
remainder of the procession, who were about as useful as the 
men in armour in a lord mayor's show. 

Leaving Pi-Hsien, we marched over the beautiful fertile 
plain ; and after about an hour the mountains appeared 



VII. FRANTIC CURIOSITY, 107 

through the haze. The whole country is a perfect network 
of canals and watercourses ; and, as the plain here begins 
rising rapidly (at least ten feet per mile), the streams are 
all very swift. The number of trees everywhere is enormous ; 
the sides of the road are bordered with a small kind of 
beech, and also willows ; there are often rows of trees 
between the fields, and clusters round the houses. Here 
is a line of fruit trees, oranges or apricots ; there a temple 
enclosed by a wall with a number of fine yews ; and in every 
direction the view is bounded by trees. The beeches are 
used only for firewood, and for the manufacture of charcoal^ 
which, as well as coke, is made in great quantities at Kuan- 
Hsien ; and vast numbers of coolies are seen on the road 
carrying these in the usual way, or wheeling them in barrows. 

There was no lack of tea-houses by the roadside, and I 
breakfasted in one cLose to the river, which, here sixty yards 
wide, and running swiftly over a pebbly bottom, looked a 
glorious place for throwing a fly. A little higher up it was 
crossed by a neat trestle-bridge in nine spans. The frame- 
work for the usual roof had just been put up over the road- 
way, and people were at work completing it. 

As fresh coolies had to be hired before entering the 
mountains, we halted for a day at Kuan-Hsien. The 
people of the place do not enjoy a high reputation, and I 
found no reason to make my opinion of them an exception 
to the general rule. I was followed about by a gaping 
crowd, who exhibited more than the usual amount of the 
frantic curiosity of the Chinese people, who, notwithstanding 
their outrageous inquisitiveness, seem yet utterly devoid 
of the power of observation. I have looked at the faces of 
some thousands, and in scarcely one have I seen the smallest 
appearance of observing power. Where the eyehd ends, the 
forehead begins, leaving no room for the organs of this 
faculty. After I had returned from my excursion, my people 
managed to keep the courtyard clear ; but in the door of 
it there was a little open latticework, and hour after hour it 
was blocked by heads, whose owners all that time can have 
seen nothing foreign save a bath-towel hung out in the sun 
to dry. 



io8 IRRIGATION WORKS, CH. 

No one who has not gone through this process of being 
continually stared at, can thoroughly realise what it is. 
Sometimes after arrival at an inn, when the fearful hubbub, 
which usually lasts about an hour, has somewhat subsided, 
and when at last the courtyard has been cleared, and the 
traveller fondly hopes the reign of peace is about to com- 
mence, he suddenly becomes aware of a whispering carried 
on somewhere near him — a conversation carried on in a 
whisper is always disagreeable, but under these circumstances 
it is peculiarly irritating — he lays down his pen, and listens, 
and the sound of a scraping noise outside the wall is heard. 
Presently a finger is cautiously thrust through the paper that 
covers a little bit of window which he fancied far beyond the 
reach of escalade, and that well-known eye appears. He 
suddenly looks up, the eye disappears, a thud is heard on 
the ground outside, followed by the rumbling sound of some 
thirty or forty feet, as their owners scamper off, ashamed of 
having been found out 

Writing is recommenced, and the traveller is soon again 
absorbed in his work, when presently a scratching and scrap- 
ing, accompanied by the same horrid whispering, discovers 
some one picking away the plaster of a lath-and-plaster par- 
tition. If one hole is covered up, another is made some- 
where else, until at length even if people should appear 
underneath the floor it would not cause the least surprise. 

Besides their reputation for turbulence, the people of 
Kuan-Hsien are said to be miserably poor ; the latter they 
certainly are, for Chin-Tai was unable to change his silver. 
I did not find their turbulence exhibit itself in any other 
way than excessive curiosity, which was so great that not 
only were the foreigner, the foreign dog, and foreign clothes 
objects of intense interest, but the wonder with which these 
were regarded was extended even to the servants, and a 
crowd of people, who apparently thought that a Chinaman 
who could perform the astounding feat of entering the 
service of a foreigner must bear in his body some outward 
and visible sign of the fact, followed Chin-Tai when he 
walked about the streets. Notwithstanding this insatiable 
inquisitiveness, I found them quiet enough, and no one said 
an uncivil word. 



VII. COAL-BEDS. 109 

Leaving the west gate of the city, the road ascended the 
left bank of the river, here about two hundred and fifty 
yards broad, a rushing torrent of beautiful clear water. This 
river debouches from the hills at Kuan-Hsien, where the 
valley is a mile wide; and, immediately below this, the 
ingenious contrivances commence for dividing the river, and 
directing the numerous branches into the desired channels. 
The works are most simple. Large boulders, about the size 
of a man's head, are collected and put into long cylindrical 
baskets of very open bamboo network. These baskets are 
laid nearly horizontally, and thus the bund is formed. The 
streams into which the river is in this manner split up, irri- 
gate the Ch'eng-Tu plain ; and lower down again unite, to 
form the * Min River ' of geographers. 

The road, following the river, at once plunged into the 
mountains, which rose about twelve or fifteen hundred feet. 
The first were of sandstone, and in this a couple of seams of 
coal, though only a few feet thick, gave plenty of occupation to 
a considerable population. The beds were here inclined 45°, 
and the strata ran up in a north-east direction, at right 
angles to the valley. These, formations soon gave way to 
the inevitable limestone, here exceedingly rich ; and large 
numbers of lime-kilns, and many coolies laden with lime, 
attested its value. Eight miles further on we turned to the 
right up a stream, where the vertical strata were well exhibited 
in some small cliffs, the strike being nearly north and south. 
The sides of the hills were almost too steep for cultivation, 
of which there was very little ; but grass, flowers, shrubs, 
and trees were growing luxuriantly, and the richness of the 
verdure was charming. 

The road was much traversed. We met great numbers 
of coolies carrying timber on their backs ; the logs were 
generally about eight feet long by ten inches square. Some 
were even larger, though these would weigh at least 200 lbs. 
There was evidently a great trade in timber, for at all the 
villages on the river there were large stacks. 

On the 22 nd we followed up the river all day by a very 
fair path, in which there was a good deal of up and down. 
The mountains here rise about three thousand feet ; their 



no A PLEASANT HOSTEL, CH. 

sides are very steep, in places almost precipitous, and here 
and there there are cliffs, sometimes four hundred or five 
hundred feet high ; but where they are not absolutely vertical, 
a luxuriant vegetation of grass, brambles, beautiful flowering 
creepers, jasmines, and ferns gets a hold in the crevices of 
the rocks. Small ashes, beeches, and other trees grow in 
profusion ; and the mountains are clothed in green to their 
very summits. Down at the bottom, if the valley opens out 
and leaves a little level ground, there is sometimes a patch 
of cultivation, and, growing amongst the big rocks which lie 
tumbled about, there are quantities of a kind of barberry, 
just now in blossom, with a scent like wild thyme. Round 
every little village are fine clumps of trees, walnuts, peaches, 
apricots, and large numbers of Pi-Pa {Eriobotrya Japonica 
or loquot\ the last now bearing fruit, which, although the 
people here seemed very fond of it, appeared to me to have 
no taste whatever. 

At every two or three miles ropes are stretched across 
the river ; the people make a sort of raft of two logs of wood, 
a line from this runs on the rope, and they cross on the raft — 
rather an unpleasant operation in this foaming torrent, which 
falls one thousand feet before it reaches Kuan-Hsien, a 
distance that, taking all the windings into account, cannot 
be more than fifty miles. 

I breakfasted at the little hamlet of Hsin-Wen-P'ing, 
built on exactly the same model as all the other mountain 
villages, with one inn, at which no one appeared to stop. 
It had only just been built, and the fresh clean w;ood panels 
of the wall and boards of the ceiling were quite a -pleasure. 
The people treated me with the greatest civility, even taking 
the trouble as we passed the houses to keep their dogs from 
barking at mine. Some of them would come in and have 
a quiet talk now and then, or show me their curiosities in 
return for a similar exhibition on my part. Here they told 
me there were deer and wild boars in the mountains ; that 
some of the latter were found weighing three hundred catties 
(four hundred pounds) ; and, as a proof, brought me a 
young one about a foot long which was striped longitudi- 
nally. 



VII. FIRST MAN-TZtf VILLAGE. in 

On the morrow the tops of the mountains were hidden 
in rain clouds, wreaths of mist hung about the lower slopes, 
and a steady rain did not tend to enliven the scene, or 
render the taking of notes more easy or more agreeable. 
The road ran close to the edge of the water, the path being 
cut out of the rock, in many places propped up from under- 
neath, or cut into steep and irregular steps which the rain 
made very slippery. The place was very desolate, and there 
was not a great deal of traffic, although every now and then 
we passed a good many coolies carrying loads of wood and 
roots ; and at long intervals a small string of mules. 

As Wdn-Ch'uan-Hsien is approached the valley opens 
out, the sides of the hills are less steep, and there is some 
cultivation below. This town is a miserable place, and has 
a poverty-stricken air. The missionaries warned me to be 
very careful here ; they advised me to shut myself up in my 
chair and draw down all the blinds, for, as they put it, the 
inhabitants were very *mauvais;' but it seemed to me that, 
however vicious their inclinations might be, there were not 
enough people to put them into practice. I saw scarcely 
any one about, and the streets would have been absolutely 
deserted but for a few old women, who seemed ashamed of 
themselves for being there. The town is only about three 
hundred yards across, and we found a filthy inn in a 
wretched suburb on the northern side. 

I had been told that I could get yak-beef here, as the 
mountaineers were said to keep yaks in a domestic state, 
and kill them for beef. This, however, was a pure fable, 
invented to put me in good humour. 

Soon after starting we saw the first Man-Tzii village on 
the top of the mountains. I was walking ahead with two of 
the Ting-Chaisi and, pointing to the village, asked if it was 
not one of the Man-Tzu. *No,' replied the man, *it's a 
village.' After, which brilliant effort on his part the con- 
versation dropped. The Man-Tzii build their villages in 
quite a different style to the Chinese. The houses are of 
stone, and the lower part is like a fort, with a few narrow 
windows like loopholes ; there is a flat roof, and on part of 
thi? a kind of shed is erected, also flat-roofed, and open to 



112 . MAN-TZty TOWERS, CH. 

the front. There is a high tower in each village. These 
are usually square ; but I once saw an octagonal one. I 
never succeeded in getting a very satisfactory explanation 
of these towers ; some people told me that the possession of 
one was a privilege enjoyed by the head-man ; but as I 
almost immediately afterwards saw three or four in the same 
village, this did not seem as if it were altogether to be relied 
on.^ 

The inn at Pan-Ch'iao, though small and dirty, was 
quiet ; but the righteous soul of Chin-Tai was sorely vexed 
at the robbery of a coat by one of the lodgers. But it was 
not so much the loss of his coat that grieved him, as the 
injustice that permitted an inn to be kept by two women so 
wretched that he could not extract from them the value of 
the stolen article. 

With much difficulty I tore him away from the scene of 
this disaster, and, leaving Pan-Ch'iao on the 24th, we con- 
tinued our journey. The river still wound about in a narrow 
gorge, and soon after starting the clouds lifted for a minute 
from the head of a fine snowy mountain. About two and a 
half miles from Pan-Ch'iao, the valley on our side opened 
out, and there was a little grassy plain, where a stream 
running down from the east joined the river. Here, hidden 
amongst the thick foliage of walnut-trees, there was a little 
village, whose inhabitants cultivated the patch of level 
ground. It was a pretty place. There were a few apricot 
and peach trees by the roadside, and a couple of brilliant 
yellow birds were flying about amongst the branches. 

Perched like an eagle's eyrie on the tops of the almost 
inaccessible hills, or like wild birds' nests on the faces of 
perpendicular cliffs, there were many villages of the Man- 
Tzu ; and down below, on the banks of the smiling river, 
there were the blackened ruins of many another once peace- 
ful hamlet. In one place, close to the ruins of some Man-. 
Tzu buildings, that I could plainly see had been burnt not 
very long ago, there was a new and flourishing Chinese 
village, where the Chinese, having ousted the aborigines, 
had established themselves. A little further on there was a 

^ See illustration, p. 102. 



VII. TRACES OF WAR, 113 

cluster of inhabited houses, built, in the Man-Tzu style, close 
down to the river, that had formerly been occupied by Man- 
Tzii, but had now been taken possession of by Chinese. I 
noticed that the Chinese, in one or two very new villages, 
were adopting in part the Man-Tzii style ; but in these the 
high tower was always wanting, and the difference in the 
appearance of the new semi Man-Tzii villages and of the 
regular Man-Tzu buildings was most apparent 

The relentless advance of the Chinese was thus pre- 
sented to the eye in a very striking manner ; every village 
had its tale of battle, murder, or sudden attack by the bar- 
barians on the peaceable Chinese. In imagination it was 
easy to fill the picture with living figures. I could in fancy 
hear the clash of arms, or see the flight of the Man-Tzu 
from their ruthless enemy, who left nothing but the smoking 
ruins of some once quiet hamlet to bear witness to the cruel 
tragedy. The story as told riie was always the same. How 
the Chinese came peaceably up the valleys, and were received 
by the inhabitants with every show of welcome ; how un- 
provoked and unexpected attack was made on the new 
comers, who, at first fighting only for existence, ultimately 
secured the victory, and established themselves in the place 
of their treacherous foes. The Chinese, as at each suc- 
cessive village they narrated with never- varying details the 
events of every battle, dwelt with delight on the valour of 
their race and the cowardly conduct of the barbarians, and 
never thought it possible that I should wonder what account 
these same barbarians would render, should they have the 
opportunity of telling their tale. 

But the irrevocable law of nature must have its way ; 
the better race must gradually supplant the inferior one ; 
the Chinese will continue their advance, stopped only where 
the climate aids the soil in its refusal to produce even to these 
industrious agriculturists the fruits of the earth in due season. 

These mountains, whose heads are crowned with daz- 
zling snow, into whose inmost recesses man has never 
penetrated, and whose rugged sides and mighty precipices 
must inspire awe in the most unpoetic soul, have not been 
without their influence on the minds of the inhabitants. 



114 MIRACULOUS SAND, CH. 

Not only the shout of battle, but the miracle wrought by 
some Buddhist saint, the mystery attendant on some freak 
of nature, and even the gentle song of love, finds its place in 
the legends that cling to the sides of these romantic valleys. 

Leaving behind us the melancholy records of a fast 
dying race, we cross a little ridge, and my attention was 
called to a spot surrounded with all the halo of the miracu- 
lous. On our left was a long ridge of loose sand, that fancy 
might conjure into the semblance of a gigantic snake ; and 
hidden in its mysterious depths some marvellous creature 
even now resides. And with awe the tale was told me, how 
no effort of man has ever succeeded in clearing away that 
ridge of sand ; for even if by dint of desperate labour during 
the day a portion is removed by nightfall, when the labourer 
returns to his work on the morrow, lo ! all is as it was, and 
everything must be commenced afresh. 

The fable has its origin in truth. No doubt there is a 
backbone of rock to this ridge of sand, and the wind coming 
out of the valley causes the drift, that even if cleared away 
would of course soon again collect. 

There was yet something more wonderful about this 
place, and Chin-Tai told me an interminable story about a 
Fu, five dragons, and five swords ; but it was very long, and 
he became so interested in it as to give it me more in 
Chinese than English, by which the moral, if there was 
one, is lost to posterity for ever. He, however, impressed 
upon me very strongly the fact that it was a miracle, and 
that, as it was told him by some one who lived here, it must 
be true. 

Hsin-P^u-Kuan boasts a wall and gate, and is presided 
over by an official called a * T'ing.' He asked me to stop 
here all day, and placed his house at my disposal, an offer 
that he did not expect me to accept. He sent me the usual 
unromantic fowl, some potatoes, which were very acceptable, 
and a piece of pork, which my servants gladly disposed of 
for me ; for nothing short of absolute starvation would have 
induced me to touch the flesh of a Chinese pig, a peculiarity 
that afterwards obtained for me the title of a foreign 
Mahometan. 



VII. SPREAD OF POTATO, 115 

The potato is despised by the Chinese as food only fit 
for pigs and foreigners, but, introduced into the mountainous 
regions by the missionaries not much more than fifty years ago, 
the valuable properties of this useful root have already made 
themselves appreciated, and steadily, but surely, gaining 
ground, notwithstanding the contempt of the Chinese, it is 
destined at no distant day to take its place amongst the 
agricultural products of China. In all the mountain regions 
in Western China and Tibet potatoes are found, and as far as 
Ta-Li-Fu I was never without them during the whole of my 
journey. 

Marching out of Hsin-P'u-Kuan the river was immedi- 
ately crossed by one of the rope suspension bridges that 
had by this time become familiar. Six ropes, one above 
the other, are stretched very tightly, and connected by ver- 
tical battens of wood laced in and out. Another similar set 
of ropes is at the other side of the roadway, which is laid 
across them, and, since it follows their curve, is rather steep 
at the two ends. The bridges themselves sway about a good 
deal, especially if there happens to be any wind, and walk- 
ing on them is something like walking on the deck of a 
rolling ship. 

The volume of the river is here swelled by the 
tributary from Li-Fan-Fu ; this is passed by a similar 
bridge, and, leaving the main road to Sung-P'an-T'ing, the 
road to Li-Fan-Fu ascends the right bank of the tributary 
stream. 

The scenery now changed entirely. At the bottom of 
the valley there was here and there a little flat ground, 
where fields of barley were divided by loose stone walls, the 
mountains rising up behind almost precipitously. With the 
exception of a few scanty blades of grass, these were per- 
fectly bare, and, standing like a long wall, almost unbroken 
even by a gully, presented a remarkable contrast to the 
magnificent verdure we had left behind. 

In one or two places the Man-Tzii villages were now 

inhabited by Chinese ; and up on the tops of the mountains, 

when the clouds lifted, the present dwelling-places of these 

aborigines could be seen. Some of them put me much in 

I 2 



ii6 HILL ROADS, CH. 

mind of many a Persian hamlet lying hidden in the valleys 
of the great Elburz ; one in particular, close down by the 
stream, half hidden amongst trees, with a little patch of 
cultivation round it, and with the bare and rugged mountain 
rising like a wall behind, needed only a few tall straight 
poplars to complete the likeness, and almost made me think 
I was nearer to the Atrek than to the Yang-Tzii. In places 
the valley narrowed, and the hills running sheer down to the 
water, the road was supported from below, or rested upon 
horizontal stakes driven into the face of the rock. The road 
was everywhere in an excellent state of repair ; great care 
was evidently bestowed upon it, and it must have; cost much 
money and labour to keep it up. The Chinese are not as a 
rule in the habit of repairing roads ; but in a case of this 
kind a road left to itself would very soon cease to exist. In 
one place it had been found impossible to avoid a short 
tunnel, and when it had been necessary to cut steps in the 
rock, these were very regular, and carefully made. 

A little less than nine miles from Hsin-P^u-Kuan there 
is a bridge precisely similar in construction to the Sanga 
bridges of India, and to many others that subsequently 
became familiar to me in the mountainous regions between 
Tibet and Western China. ^ 

On the 25th we continued our march up the desolate 
valley, where the cultivation on the little level patches of 
ground close to the water's edge only served as a foil to set 
off the bare and precipitous mountain-sides. The streams 
that came down from these ran through deep and gloomy 
gorges, tumbling in little cascades between almost vertical 
walls of rock ; many of them were of a brown colour, so like 
the peat streams of Scotland that I almost think there must 
be fields of peat in the unknown mass of mountains to the 
south. There was scarcely any traffic on the road, the 
villages were few and very small, and half hidden in walnut 
and willow trees, with a few apricots and firs. 

Li-Fan-Fu is situated on a little triangle of flat ground, 
at the mouth of a narrow gully. The river runs swiftly in 
front, and separates it from a wild and bare mountain, 

' See illustration, p. 273. 



vir. U-FAN-FU. 117 

crowned with huge precipices that rise up some three thousand 
feet at the opposite side. It is enclosed by a wall, in many 
places broken down. This wall runs between the houses 
and the river, and then climbs a long way up the crests of 
two spurs which enclose the deep ravine running up at the 
back of the town ; but, as the houses are only built on the 
flat ground close to the river, the walls enclose a consider- 
able vacant space. I counted the houses as well as I could, 




GorgtofL[-Fan-Fu. 

and at a rough calculation put them at about one hundred 
and twenty. The houses here, unlike those in other parts of 
China, are two-storied, generally built of stone below, with a 
wooden upper story and a balcony. Nearly all the roofs are 
flat, but a few of them are made of sloping battens of wood. 
There is a small suburb on the eastern side, but none else- 
where. 

A rushing torrent comes down the ravine, flows through 
the town, and serves to turn numerous water-mills, for, as 
this is a corn and not a rice-growing country, there is a 
great deal of grinding to be done. The wheels are nearly 



n8 CHIN-TAI ON THE MARCH, CH. 

always horizontal, and are enclosed in little low, round, flat- 
roofed houses, which look like small forts ; they have one 
little door, and are hardly high enough for a man to 
stand in. 

There is another Chinese town, called Cha-Chou-T'ing, 
twenty miles up the river, which is the last Chinese station. 

Crossing the river by a rope suspension-bridge, the road- 
way of which was merely a few hurdles laid down, and walk- 
ing about half a mile up the river, we turned into a deep 
ravine and came upon a couple of houses, where, as an illus- 
tration of intermarriage, about which I had been making 
inquiries, I was shown a Chinaman who had a Man-Tzii 
wife. 

The people who were with me evidently thought that 
now we should go back. 

* But where is the Man-Tzii village ? ' I said. 

* Oh ! ' they replied, * that is too far ; ten miles away up 
there.' 

I looked, and saw a village on the side of the mountain, 
about four miles off, and two thousand feet above me. 
Fortunately the people had not time to make up a story, 
as they had simply trusted that the mere sight of the village 
perched up above me would be quite enough to damp my 
ardour ; but, to their astonishment, I insisted on going there. 
Chin-Tai was the most disgusted of all, for the sun was 
shining, it was somewhat warm, and he appeared to be 
wrapped up in an infinite number of wadded coats. He 
very soon became a piteous object. The road was desper- 
ately steep, and very stony ; every step he took was a labour 
to him. He was compelled to sit down and rest every few 
yards ; sometimes he threw himself flat on his back with a 
groan. He several times declared that he was going to die, 
and I found it far greater trouble to look after him and make 
him come on, than to walk the distance myself a dozen 
times. My satellites kept their countenances fairly, but 
were evidently desperately amused, and I could easily see 
that amongst themselves they thought the whole proceeding 
eminently ludicrous. By dint of perseverance and much 
waiting, we at length succeeded in getting him to the top, and 



VII. VAST SNOW FIELDS. 119 

when there it was with true religious fervour that he * knocked 
his head.* I found that the Man-Tzu people cultivated far 
more ground than I had thought The upper slopes of the 
hills were all laid out in terraces, where barley and wheat 
were grown. 

In this part of the country the term Man-Tzii is, amongst 
the aborigines, considered a term of reproach, they them- 
selves preferring to be called I-Ran, or I-Jen. This is very 
unusual. The aborigines in the province of Kwei-Chou 
would rather consider I-Ran an insulting epithet ; but here 
the term Man-Tzu is considered so bad that Chin-Tai would 
not let me go on, until he was perfectly sure I should make 
no use of the word * Man-Tzii ; ' and in the conversations 
that afterwards passed in this village the term I-Ran was 
repeatedly used, and the word Man-Tzu not once. 

This village was about two thousand two hundred feet 
above Li-Fan-Fu, but was not on the top of the mountain, 
which rose another' thousand feet behind it. The houses 
were all of loose stones, with little windows like loopholes ; 
the streets were not more than three feet wide, and every- 
thing was more filthy than usual. As we sat outside the 
entrance to the village, waiting for Chin-Tai to drag himself 
up the last few yards, the clouds lifted from the head of a 
grand mountain to the south of Li-Fan-Fu, disclosing vast 
fields of snow. This is called Hsiieh^Lung-Shan, or Snow 
Dragon Mountain, and the people said there were fields of 
ice where it was too cold for any one to live. 

In the village we all had tolerably good appetites, and 
did justice to a huge loaf of Indian corn bread that one of 
the Ting-Chais brought straight from the ashes in which it 
was baked. I then asked to be taken to a house where I 
could sit down, and the village school was selected. Here 
I soon gathered a few people around me, who gave me what 
little information they themselves possessed. There are two 
kinds of I-Ran people, those living at Cha-Chuo and beyond 
having a language different from those who live here. The 
I-Ran of this place are very like the Chinese in appearance ; 
they wear the same dress, as well as the plait, but they have 
good teeth. The Chinese, as a rule, have vile teeth, ill- 



120 THE WHITE CLOUD MOUNTAIN. CH. 

formed, irregular, very yellow, and covered with tartar. The 
I-Ran here all talk Chinese, as well as their own language. 
Their writing is Chinese, and the school children were 
learning to write that language. The I-Ran of the West 
have quite a different writing, which appears to be alpha- 
betic ; but I completely failed in my attempts to get the 
alphabet ; all they could say was that they had a great many 
characters. I, however, made one of them write me a 
couple of lines, and on comparing their writing, which is 
from left to right, with pure Tibetan, there is really no 
difference, and their statement that the number of characters 
was very great was probably some confusion. They gave 
me the numerals and a few words, in which the connection 
between the two languages is quite apparent, although they 
are very different. 

We turned our backs on Li-Fan-Fu on the 27th, and, as 
we marched down towards Hsin-P'u-Kuan, the clouds lifted 
from a magnificent snowy mountain in the east. It is called 
the White Cloud Mountain, and it must be fourteen or 
fifteen thousand feet high; for I subsequently found the 
snow-line at this season at an altitude of thirteen thousand 
feet ; and the summit as I looked on it was at least one 
thousand or two thousand feet above the line of snow. 
Moreover, the snow lies on this peak all the year round, and 
the limit of perpetual snow must here be at least fourteen 
or fifteen thousand feet above the sea. 

From Hsin-P*u-Kuan we marched up the banks of the 
main river ; and now the beautifully wooded slopes and 
magnificent verdure had disappeared, and the rocks were 
very bare. The I-Ran villages were seen on the tops of the 
hills all the way to W^n-Ch'eng, which we reached just before 
a good downpour of rain commenced. 

Next morning the sun dispelled the mists ; and every 
now and then there was a glimpse of the grand snow-capped 
mountains on which snow lies all the year round. 

In many places along the river ropes were stretched from 
blank to bank ; the inhabitants manage to cross by these, and 
even carry goods. An opportunity was soon afforded to us 
of watching a man cross with a heavy sack ; a sight that 



VII. HAUL-BRIDGE, I2( 

was all the more thoroughly enjoyed when he stuck in the 
middle immovable until another man came to his assistance. 
There are always two ropes one for going, the other for 
retummg so arranged that each has a considerable slope 
downwards A small runner is first placed on the rope. 
This IS a hollow half cjlinder of wood about eight inches 
in diameter and ten inches long The runner is placed on 
the rope (a verj large twisted bamboo rope). The man 
takes a strong Ime ties it round his body, and then, by 







passing it two or three times over the runner, makes a kind of 
seat for himself; it is then again passed round his body, and 
firmly secured. He is thus suspended close below the big 
rope ; then, with both hands on the runner, he raises his 
feet from the ground, and shoots down the incline at a 
tremendous pace. Of course, with a width of about one 
hundred yards, it is quite impossible to have one end so 
high that there shall be a regular slope all the way ; so, not- 
withstanding the impetus he gets in descendii^ which shoots 



122 NINE NAILS MOUNTAINS, CH. 

him some way up, the passenger always has to pull himself 
up the last few yards, which is done in the natural hand-over- 
hand fashion. This is a method of crossing a river that 
must require a considerable amount of nerve, when the 
torrent is roaring some two hundred feet below, dashing 
over most ugly and cruel-looking jagged rocks. ^ 

Two miles beyond Mao-Chou, on the 30th, I had a 
magnificent view of the Nine Nails Mountain, so called on 
account of its summit being broken into sharp peaks or 
points ; but as for the number Nine, it might just as well 
have been anything else. I had not before been able to 
appreciate the grandeur of this mountain, in which I could 
now see great fields of snow descending quite two thousand 
feet below its highest point, I stood and admired it for a 
long time, the people all wondering what I was looking at. 

Near this point the mountains again close in on the 
river,. which now runs through a series of narrow and pre- 
cipitous gorges, great bare slopes and precipices running 
down to the water, and leaving scarcely a yard of level 
ground — except here and there, at the end of a projecting 
point, or up the bottom of a little valley, where a few flat 
acres are found and cultivated. The great mountain-sides 
are ragged and torn about in a marvellous manner, and 
huge masses broken from them lie strewn about The road 
is cut out of the sides of the rock, and is often supported 
from below, or propped up for a few yards by horizontal 
stakes driven into the rock. When a valley opening disclosed 
a view of the interior, the tops of the higher mountains to 
the west were seen to be well wooded ; but there was no 
opportunity of seeing what lay to the east, as none of the 
valleys were sufficiently open. 

About six miles from Ch'a-Erh-^^ai the river receives a 
considerable affluent from the west, called the Lu-Hua-Ho. 
A six days' journey up this river is the home of another of 
the Man-Tzii tribes, the Su-Mu, or White Man-Tzii— as the 
people here call them — a tribe numbering some three and a 
half millions ; and the Ju-Kan, or Black Man-Tzii, live in 

2 This is the Chikd of the Kashmir Himdlya (see Drew's JummoQ^ 
&c., p. 123).— K 



viT. THE SU'MU TRIBE. 123 

the interior, an indefinite number of days beyond. The 
sovereign of the Su-Mu is always a queen. When the 
Tartars were conquering the land, this tribe happened at 
that time to have a queen for a sovereign, who gave the 
Tartars great assistance, and as .an honorary distinction it 
was decreed by the conquerors that in the future the Su-Mu 
should always be governed by a queea 

The Su-Mu have been pillaged by the Ju-Kan, their 
houses burnt, and their villages destroyed. The Ju-Kan 
now wanted peace, and had offered an indemnity sufficient 
to rebuild the houses ; but the Su-Mu were eaten up with 
the desire of revenge, and their queen was now at Ch'eng-Tu 
praying that soldiers might be sent to punish the Ju-Kan. 
If she ever succeeded in her mission she probably will find 
herself in the position of the horse in iEsop's fable, who 
desired the help of man. 

On the 30th we marched all day through the same wild 
gorge, hemmed in with bare cliffs and ragged rocks, broken 
at the top into pinnacles and crags of fantastic shape. Now 
and then some of the valleys opening out to the right or left 
were less precipitous, and were well wooded on their slopes. 
Once or twice I caught a glimpse of a snowy peak, but 
nearly all day we were shut in by the steep hill-sides, and 
could see little besides them and a narrow streak of heaven 
above. When the road descended to the river, there 
might be a few yards of level ground, where the barberry 
and other shrubs seemed to grow luxuriantly amongst the 
rocks ; but the general aspect of the scene was barren and 
somewhat dreary. 

From Ta-Ting the road at once climbed up the pre- 
cipitous side of the valley by a tolerably gentle slope ; and 
we soon began to breathe the pure and invigorating moun- 
tain air. 

As we ascended, instead of being shut in by steep hills 
and cliffs, the slopes became more gentle ; though often high 
above us, at the very summits, there were again great 
precipices. Amongst the slopes and crags were many 
tiny plateaux, cultivated by a few people, who seemed to 
gather but scanty crops from the unfruitful soil. The sides 



124 ALPINE SCENERY. CH. 

of the valleys were either well wooded with pines, or covered 
with close and thick brambles, barberries, thorns, and all 
sorts of shrubs which were deliciously fresh and green. 
Many varieties of wild flowers grew luxuriantly, numbers of 
the purple iris in blossom, and acres of a kind of purple 
crocus ; many sweet-smelling herbs shot up amongst the 
grass, and the whole scene is very fair to look upon. As 
we ascended, we saw a great many cock-pheasants strutting 
about, crowing loudly, quite innocent of fear, and un- 
suspicious of any harm from the hand of man. On this 
occasion their confidence was misplaced ; and thenceforth 
my table was daily supplied with game, which varied the 
monotony of diminutive kids, shrivelled ducks, and emaciated 
fowls. 

A steady pull of eleven hundred feet in four miles 
brought us to an inn close to the village of Shui-Kou-Tzti, 
where I found a room looking over the valley of the river. 
Here the air felt crisp and pure, and, though the sun was 
shining brightly, the thermometer at 9 a.m. was only 58® in 
the shade. Across the valley, a grand mountain ran down 
in precipices and steep and bare slopes, about three thousand 
feet, to the river ; up a gorge, to the left, a deep green forest 
of firs crowned the summit ; to the right, on a small plateau, 
a Man-Tzfi village hung over the stream, with a little terrace 
cultivation at its side ^ in the background here and there 
a patch of snow was lying on the higher mountain- tops, 
and below in the bottom we could just hear the murmur of 
^he invisible river as it tumbled over its rocky bed. The 
tinkling of the goat-bells sounded pleasantly in the morn- 
ing air, and, after having been shut in for so many days in 
the close gorges, the place and all around it was very 
delightful. 

After breakfast another steady pull of one thousand feet 
brought us to our highest point, and from here we had a 
fine view of the town of Tieh-Chi-Ying. This place is on 
a flat plateau, bounded on three sides by precipices, or 
exceedingly steep slopes, which fall down to the river fifteen 
hundred feet below. On the fourth side, apparently in- 
accessible mountain crags rise abruptly behind it, the roads 



\^L THE YAK. 125 

to and from it being cut out of the face of the mountain, 
making it a very strong military position. 

We descended to the river by a steep zigzag, where 
loose stones lay scattered about the narrow path, and then 
followed the river bank to Sha-Wan (the Sandy HoUowV 

There was a freshness in the early morning air that now 
made us feel we were thoroughly in the mountains, and far 
above the oppressive heat of the steaming plains below. 
The road from Sha-Wan was very good, and the scenery 
most pictiuiesque. On the right, crags and precipices rose 
into piimacles generally crowned with clumps of pines ; the 
northern faces of the hills were almost alwa}^ well wooded 
with fresh green or yellow trees ; and in the valley all sorts 
of shrubs grew luxuriantly. On the opposite bank of the 
river the hills sloped gently, and their sides were beautifully 
green with grass and shrubs. Presently on the road a string 
of yaks was encountered, and a number of coolies laden 
wiUi red deers' horns, some of them very fine twelve- tyne 
anders. The deer are only hunted when in velvet, and 
from the horns in this state a medicine is made that is one 
of the most highly prized in the Chinese pharmacopoeia ; 
the anders that are shed are collected and brought down to 
the plains for sale, where they are converted into knife 
handles, and used for various other purposes. These are 
sold at Kuan-Hsien at the rate of fourteen taels for one 
hundred catties (about sixty-five shillings for one hundred 
pounds). 

About eight miles from Sha-Wan, on turning a corner, a 
glorious view suddenly burst upon me. Right in front was 
a perfect pyramid of virgin snow ; the sun was shining 
brightly, and the brilliant white of the peak was all the 
more dazzling from the contrast presented by the deep 
shadow on the wooded flanks of the nearer mountains. This 
was Mount Shih-Pan-Fang (the Stone Slab House), and I 
stood almost spell-bound, lost in admiration. Long I gazed 
at this majestic peak, whilst my unsympathetic companion 
seized the opportunity to sit down and smoke a pipe, won- 
dering the while what I could find to look at or admire. 

The morning air of the 3rd of June quite made my 



126 TEA AND TOBACCO, CH. 

fingers tingle ; and I thought with pity of Baber sweltering 
at Ch'ung-Ch'ing, with the thermometer at ioo° in the 
shade. The road was now good and level, and kept close 
down to the water-side. The scenery was very beautiful ; 
the tops of the mountains were crowned with dark forests of 
firs, and the valleys, opening east and west, disclosed a vast 
extent of pine-clad heights. The bed of the river was much 
wider, and bounded by slopes clothed with shrubs of many 
descriptions, amongst which wild flowers grew in profusion ; 
in one spot there wis a field of wild roses, one mass of 
blossom, and the air was literally laden with the delicious 
perfume. On the northern slopes were charming little 
woods of the freshest green ; and the yellow flowers of the 
barberry, ever)rwhere abundant, helped to give that warmth 
to the colouring that always seems to characterise a Chinese 
landscape. Five miles from Ch'eng-P'ing-Kuan a valley 
opening to the east gave a near view of the snow pyramid 
Shih-Pan-Fang, whose summit, as I now could plainly see, 
must be at least two thousand feet above the snow line. 

The landlord of the inn at ^«an-Hua-Kuan had heard 
of my approach, and had cleaned up his house three days 
before in expectation of my arrival. Directly I came in he 
-brought me a cup of the most delicious tea I ever tasted in 
China. It was of pale straw colour, like all tea taken by the 
Chinese, and the steam that rose from it diffused a delicate 
bouquet through the room. I was very glad to buy a 
packet of this from the friendly landlord ; for as I had left 
Ch'eng-Tu with the intention of being absent for a few days 
only, I had brought with me a very small supply, which, like 
my candles and cigars, had now come to an end. I had 
been for a long time endeavouring, unsuccessfully, to make 
myself believe that I enjoyed the aristocratic water-pipe ; 
but at last the conclusion was forced upon me that my 
tastes were vulgar, and, venturing one day to borrow a pipe 
from a coolie, I never again resorted to elegant but trivial 
hubble-bubbles. 

The coolie's pipe is the same all over China ; but in 
Ssii-Ch'uan the method of smoking seems in accordance 
with the character of the people, who, being more indepen- 



VII. COUNTRY OF THE SLFAN, 127 

dent in spirit, and less narrow-minded, are not so addicted 
to trivialities as the Chinese of other provinces. They, 
therefore, do not content themselves with the homoeopathic 
doses of tobacco usually taken, but roughly roll a leaf of 
tobacco into a kind of cigar, and use the pipe as a mouth- 
piece. 

We now entered rather a different country, the scenery 
everywhere indicating the proximity of the plateaux. The 
river valley opened out to nearly half a mile, and the 
bed itself became wide and shallow, the stream being 
broken up into several small channels. The mountains 
were now rounded, and separated by open level valleys, 
instead of the close narrow gorges which had hitherto been 
almost universal ; the main valley was all cultivated, whilst 
the hill-sides were cut into terraces, and crops grown all 
over them. 

The Man-Tzii people had now been left behind, and we 
were approaching the country of the Si -Fan. These are a 
very wild-looking people. Some of them wear hats of felt, 
in shape like those of the Welsh-women, and high felt 
riding-boots, and in their dress are much the same as 
the regular Tibetans. Now and then we met three or 
four, riding all together ; and my truculent Ting-Chais 
always made them dismount as I approached, in no way 
attempting to conceal their contempt for the conquered 
barbarians. 

Sung-P'an-T'ing is on the right bank of the river, with 
an extensive walled suburb on the left ; a hill runs down 
from the right bank, ending in a small cliff ; and the wall 
of the town runs right up the side of the hill, taking in a 
great deal of open ground where barley and wheat are 
grown. The place seemed to have an enormous population 
for its size. 

I was informed that, at a place two days' journey to the 
west, there were great numbers of red deer ; and I was promised 
excellent sport if I felt inclined to make an expedition. 
Wild sheep and goats were said to live amongst the crags 
and rocks in the neighbourhood of Hsiieh-^an ; and the 
people told me that on the road to Lung-An-Fu I should 



128 BREAD, BUTTER, AND BEEF. CH, 

see plenty of hares, musk-deer, and pheasants — a prophecy 
that was belied ; for although there were a great many 
pheasants for the first few days, I never saw a hare, a musk- 
deer, or any other game. There must, however, be a con- 
siderable number of musk-deer amongst the mountains ; for 
the price of musk at Sung-P'an-T'ing was only three times 
its weight in silver. The musk-deer are not shot, but 
trapped ; for there is a belief that if one of them is wounded 
he tears out the musk-bag, and so disappoints the hunter. 
It is possible that terror or pain, or both combined, may 
cause the animal to eject the musk, as the sepia, under 
similar circumstances, squirts out its ink, and as, on the 
authority of ^^sop, the beaver is said to tear out a certain 
gland and cast it to the hunter. 

The crops here are nearly all wheat, oats, and barley, as 
it is too cold for Indian corn. There are also potatoes in 
the neighbourhood, and the market produced a vegetable 
like spinach. The principal food of the people is barley- 
bread, and barley-porridge, for which the barley is roasted 
before grinding it into meal. There is also some buckwheat, 
from which a heavy unleavened bread is made. The market 
produces the leaven and steam-baked bread, in the shape of 
dumplings, which seems to be universal wherever Chinamen 
are found 

Butter is made in the mountains by the Mongols ; but it 
is not brought down here in any quantity, as this place is 
entirely populated by Chinese, who never make use of butter 
or milk in any form whatever. The landlord of the inn, 
however, had some, and made me a present of a circular 
cake about an inch thick and six or eight inches in diameter, 
similar in shape, taste, and appearance to the cakes of butter 
found all over Eastern Tibet The river produces a few 
little fish, very much like sprats in taste and appearance. 
Yak-beef is plentiful, and costs forty cash a catty, and eggs 
cost seven cash each. 

In the month of July there is an annual fair, when the 
Si-Fan, the Mongols of the Ko-Ko-Nor, and the Man-Tzti 
bring in their produce to sell. Skins of all kinds, musk, 
deer-horns, rhubarb, and medicines are the chief articles 



VII. FOREIGN REMEDIES APPRECIATED, 129 

brought down, for which they take up in exchange crockery, 
cotton goods, and little trifles. 

My landlord was a Mahometan, and his respect for me 
was much increased by my reputation for never eating pork 
or ham. He told me that he had been to the Ko-Ko-Nor, 
and that the journey occupied three months in going, and 
the same time in returning ; the road, he said, passed over 
dreadful mountains, the very recollection of which made 
him shiver. In winter-time the cold is intense, and the wild 
winds that sweep across the frozen plateaux cut great gashes 
in the face or any part of the body exposed. He asked me 
to give him some medicine against the wind ; and as Chin- 
Tai declared that the possession of a bit of diachylon plaster 
would render him exceedingly happy, I felt I could not 
deprive him of the pleasure, although I rather spoilt the eifect 
by telling him I was afraid he would not find it a certain 
remedy. 

The ignorant superstition of the Chinese attributes to 
the foreigner all kinds of supernatural powers, which are 
even extended in their minds to European goods. Amongst 
many Chinese the application of grease from a foreign 
candle is considered a specific for small-pox ; and European 
sugar is almost a pharmacopoeia in itself. 

On the 6th we left the valley of the river which had been 
our constant companion for so many days, and, climbing up 
a gorge, we soon obtained a good view of the town. As- 
cending a little more, we crossed a ridge, here only eight 
hundred feet above the river, to the valley of another stream, 
running nearly parallel to the main river. We now ascended 
this valley by a good and easy road, and kept up above the 
stream as far as the Lamassery, a low wooden building, very 
irregular in shape. About some of the chief rooms there 
was some coarse embroidery ; round the largest of the 
chapels hung a number of rough pictures of saints, painted 
on a sort of cotton stuff; in one there was an image of 
Buddha, who here is known by the name of Kh^tye-T3.ba ; ^ 

* Buddha is usually called in Tibet Shakya Thubpa^ * Mighty 
Sakya.'— y. 

K 



I30 BITTER ALPINE WINDS, CH. 

in front of him there were a number of lotus-flowers, and 
ten little brass bowls of water. They introduced me into 
the cell of the chief Lama, who acknowledged my presence 
by a slight inclination of the head ; he was squatting before 
an immense pan of ashes, counting beads and muttering 
prayers. 

I did not stop here long. The Lamas, though exceed- 
ingly polite, were excessively dirty, and smelt horribly. This 
elevated plateau-land being ill-adapted for agriculture, but 
few Chinese are found, and we were now almost entirely 
amongst the Si-Fan. Their architecture is very much the 
same as that of the Chinese, but they do not turn up the 
ends of their ridges and gables ; indeed, at a distance, 
the houses look very Swiss. On the hill-sides the roofs are 
made of planks, laid anyhow, with big stones on them to 
prevent their being blown off, just as in Switzerland. 

The march was up the valley, bounded on both sides by 
rounded hills and low mountains, all covered with grass and 
brushwood full of pheasants ; but not a single tree or wild 
flower was to be seen. Here the Si-Fan keep immense 
herds of cattle and yaks that feed on the splendid pasture. 
We passed no village all day, a single house, surrounded by 
a little patch of cultivation, at about every mile and a half, 
being the only sign of a population. 

For the last two miles and a half of the journey we did 
not pass a single habitation. We were obliged to stop at a 
solitary wayside hut, as there was not another roof for many 
miles ; and as a heavy chilly rain came on, and wild gusts 
of wind swept down from the snowy heights, none of us were 
loth to take shelter in the hovel at Feng- Tung-Kuan, or Wind 
Cave Pass, as it is most appropriately called This place is 
not visited by any but a few of the poorest coolies, and the 
accommodation was suited to the requirements. It was a 
long low house of uncut, flat stones, between which the day- 
light was more apparent than the mortar. The single room, 
that constituted the public accommodation of this luxurious 
hotel, was sheltered by a gabled wooden roof, the ridge of 
which was left open in its whole length as an exit for the 



VII. TERRORS OF THE SNOW-PASSES. 131 

smoke of the fire, a most unlooked-for piece of thoughtfulness 
on the part of the architect. One end of the room, above 
which there was a loft under the gable, was divided off by a 
wooden partition ; this portion formed the private residence 
of the hostess, and was on this occasion given up to me. 

The people here keep very large savage dogs ; in shape 
they are more like a colley than any other English breed, 
but much heavier about the head, neck and fore part of the 
body. They have a very deep voice, and one of them would 
hardly let us enter the inn — if inn it could be called, for there 
was absolutely nothing to be purchased but a little buckwheat 
or barley-bread. 

Chin-Tai brought me awful tales of the terrors of the 
road that we were to traverse the following morning. He 
warned me that going up we must all be very quiet ; any 
one "calling out or making a noise would be certain to bring 
on a terrific wind, a violent snowstorm, hailstones of gigantic 
dimensions, thunder, lightning, and every evil the elements 
could inflict. If a man on this mountain should express 
feelings of hunger, thirst, fatigue, heat, or cold, immediately 
the symptoms would be intensified to a very great degree. 
He told me that once a military official with an army of 
soldiers came to cross this mountain. He had with him his 
sedan-chair, to which about twenty men were yoked, before 
and behind, who could not get on without shouting. The 
troops also marching always made a great noise. This high 
functionary was warned that he should not attempt to cross 
the mountain, for if he did some fearful accident would 
befal him. He laughed, however, at the warnings, saying 
that he had the emperor's order, and must go on. So 
he went. A fearful storm of wind and snow came on ; 
half his army perished ; and he himself very nearly 
lost his life. Such were the tales about Hsiieh-Shan 
with which I went to bed ; and if I did not shiver it was 
thanks to the quantity of clothing with which I covered 
myself. 

The floor of the loft made a sort of ceiling to my apart- 
ment ; but there was a large square hole in it, and through 

K 2 



132 SUMMIT OF PLATEAU, CH. 

this, as I lay in bed, I could see the long opening in the 
roof, and the stars beyond, when not obscured by clouds ; 
and at intervals the rain came in for variety. Feng-Tung- 
Kuan is 11,884 feet above the sea. It fully justified its name, 
for it blew a violent gale all night ; but I put on a con- 
siderable number of garments, rolled myself up in three 
blankets, and neither the wind, nor the rain, nor Chin-Tai's 
weird stories disturbed my peaceful slumbers. The story 
of the general who cried ' Excelsior ' was familiar to me ; but 
whether it was told me before, a propos of this mountain, or 
whether I have read it somewhere, I am not sure. I have 
no doubt that it is a tale tacked on to many mountain 
passes. 

When the morning broke on the 7th of June low clouds 
were scudding across the sky, driven by the wind, that 
howled amongst the crevices in the walls of the hut. A 
chilly rain that turned to sleet did not enliven the scene, and 
soon we plunged into the dank mists that swept over the 
summit of Hsiieh-Shan. One single partridge, startled from 
its bed, was the only living thing we saw as we made the 
dreaded ascent. The plateau, as the summit is approached, 
is bare and dreary ; a climb of about one thousand feet 
brought us to the first sprinkling of snow, at an altitude of 
12,800 feet above the sea ; there was no snow on the path, 
but it was lying in little patches amongst the rocks, here 
all quite bare. A short distance more, and at an altitude 
of 13,148 feet above the sea we stood at length upon the 
summit of Hsiieh-Shan (Snow Mountain). At the very 
top there was a little hut without any inmates, but no one 
seemed anxious to remain here in the cold sleety rain ; and, 
quickly descending the steep path that leads to the west, we 
left the chill mists behind us, and soon reached a warmer 
climate. 

Riding down another valley, that ran nearly east and 
west, on our northern side there was but little wood, all the 
slopes being covered with a rich green grass ; but on the 
south, a serried ridge, whose summit was torn into wild crags 
and ragged pinnacles, bounded the valley, throwing out long 



viL VERDURE OF EASTERN SLOPES, 153 

spurs, where pine forests clothed the northern faces of the 
lower slopes, and masses of a shrub with white blossoms 
and a scent like our lilac grew amongst the trees in lavish 
profusion. 

These forests are being cut down in a ruthless manner, 
and as of course no attempt is made to plant young trees, of 
the ultimate fate of these beautiful valleys there can be but 
little doubt. The trees gone, the rains will cease ; and 
then these ranges will become dreary, bare, and useless 
masses, like the mountains of Northern Persia. 

A march of ten and three quarter miles, during which 
we passed only three small huts, brought us to the village of 
Hung-^^^ai-Kuan (Red Rock Pass), where the community 
lived in three houses. Here we halted for breakfast, and 
immediately afterwards heavy rain commenced, evidently 
no unusual occurrence, for the rich green of the dense woods 
that now surrounded us, and the wonderful verdure of the 
open slopes and valleys, were unmistakable signs that the 
climate of the eastern is much more moist than that of 
the western face of the great spur from the Himalayan 
plateau, which stretches to the south between the valleys 
of Sung-P'an-T'ing and Lung-An-Fu. 

The ridges from each side every now and then threw out 
great masses of rock, ending in huge precipices over the 
valley ; and, between these, green grassy slopes, with clumps 
of trees scattered about as in a park, ran up to the heights 
above. The bottom of the valley was wooded with low 
trees, and we marched all the afternoon through a thick 
copse, where there wfere not so many wild flowers as on the 
other side of the mountain. Here and there there was a 
house quite new, showing how recently the Chinese had 
reached this point 

The Si-Fan live only on the tops of the hills, and, as 
before, every opening had its tale of horrors. At one of 
them my attendants stopped, and said that here the Si-Fan 
had suddenly descended from their fastnesses, butchered five 
hundred soldiers in cold blood, and burnt all the houses 
without any provocation on the part of the Chinese. 



134 LUXURIANT GORGES, CH. 

* But what were five hundred soldiers doing here in the 
country of the Si-Fan ? ' I asked. 

The question remained unanswered, and we marched in 
silence to the village of Cheng- Yuan, three thousand feet 
below the summit of Hsuen-Shan. 

The river now ran for six miles through a narrow gorge, 
not more than one hundred yards wide, bounded everywhere 
by almost vertical cliifs, and clothed with the most dense 
foUage. In the valley there were azaleas fifteen and twenty 
feet high, covered with a mass of blossom as if prepared for 
a show at Kew. Wild peonies proudly flaunted their gorgeous 
flowers, and the delicate foliage of a small wild bamboo 
almost hid itself amongst the broad fronds of many a mag- 
nificent fern. 

We passed three wretched huts, but, except the little paitch 
of garden round them, there was absolutely no cultivation all 
the morning. 

The affluent streams ran through exceedingly narrow 
precipitous gorges ; but the foliage was so dense that it was 
impossible to see more than a few yards in any direction, 
except where the road rose a little above the river. Once I 
heard the roar of a waterfall ; but, though I was not above a 
few yards distant, I was quite unable to get a view. The road 
was strewn with sharp stones, and, although it never rose 
more than thirty or forty feet above the river, frequent 
ascents and descents of no more than this were sufficiently 
troublesome over the slippery and broken rocks. 

We halted at Yueh-Erh-^«ai, a little hut by the wayside. 
It was but a mere shelter, the back Vail being made of a 
few loose stones, on which the roof-beams rested Here I 
breakfasted, and two of the Ting-Chais seized the oppor- 
tunity to lie down in a corner, where there was enough shelter 
from the draughts for the lamps of their cherished opium- 
pipes. 

Beyond this place the gorge became more narrow, and 
the sides of the hills more steep, until the river ran between 
two vertical walls of r8ck, running up a clear five hundred 
feet, separated from one another by but a few yards, where 



VII. MIRACLE CAVE, 135 

with marvellous pertinacity the trees and shrubs, which still 
grew in rich luxuriance, continued to get a hold for their 
roots in every crevice in the cliffs. The road was dreadful, 
the descents were desperately steep, and the slippery rocky 
path was often blocked by great masses of pointed stone ; 
where this occurred, as it often did, in places almost like an 
exceedingly steep staircase, not more than two feet wide, with 
a rough wall of rock at one side and a precipice at the other, 
the travelling was not exactly pleasant for us who were going 
down ; and it seemed as if the ascent must be an impossible 
task for either coolies or mules. 

The river (for it had become one now) dashed in a 
succession of waterfalls over its uneven bed, now blocked by 
some gigantic rock, or almost stopped by the perpendicular 
cliffs, that hem it in on either side so closely that it some- 
times seems an easy jump across the top. It is quite 
impossible to give any idea of this extraordinary gorge ; I 
could hardly have believed in the existence of a rift so 
narrow and so deep, and yet so wonderfully clothed with 
trees, ferns, and shrubs. On emerging from it and looking 
back, there was nothing to be seen but a giant wall of rock ; 
the chasm through which the torrent finds its way was 
nowhere visible, and it seemed almost impossible that there 
could be a road through that apparently impenetrable 
barrier. 

In one of the gloomiest recesses of this remarkable 
chasm, it is said that a long time ago a hermit took up his 
residence in a cave ; but finding that, even for Chinese eyes, 
it was exceedingly dark, so dark that he could not even see 
to boil his rice, he fixed a mirror on the opposite side, which 
not only reflected the rays of the sun into the sombre 
dwelling, but (such was the holiness of the man) it had the 
additional useful property of reflecting the moon also, 
whether that luminary happened to be above the horizon 
or not The hermit has. long since been transported to a 
better sphere ; but they say his looking-glass still remains, and 
the traveller who should have the misfortune to be benighted 
in this desolate gorge may still see the weird glimmer of the 
mirror on the darkest and thickest night. 



r36 SUSPENSION BRIDGE, CH. 

The valley opens out near Hsiao-Ho-Ying, and about 
nine miles further on the river is crossed by one of the iron 
chain suspension-bridges, so familiar to travellers in Western 
China, but of which up till now I had never seen a specimen. 
Seven iron chains extend from bank to bank ; these are 
tightly stretched by powerful windlasses, bedded in a solid 
Diass of masonry. The roadway is laid on these chains. 
There are piers at each end ; and from the top of these 
(about eight or nine feet above the roadway) two other 
chains are stretched, one on each side. These two chains 
droop in the middle to the roadway, which is suspended 
from them at this point ; but as these extra chains are 
intended only to prevent the structure from swaying about, 
and not as an additional support for the weight, the roadway 
is attached to them at this central point, and at no others. 
This method of applying the two side chains is rather 
unusual ; for generally they are parallel to the roadway, 
about three feet above it, and are chiefly of use as hand- 
rails. 

The valley from Yeh-T'ang to Shui-Ching-Chan is very 
open, and the road generally fair, though bad in places. 
Every now and then it would rise a couple of hundred feet 
above the river ; at other times it was scooped out of the 
side of the rock, or propped up from below in the usual way. 
The hill-sides generally were not too steep for the cultivation 
of Indian corn ; and close down to the river the quantity of 
rice was rapidly increasing. This was now planted out in 
beds from which a crop of opium had already been gathered. 
Round the villages there was a little wheat and tobacco. 
We had the same wild flowers by the roadside, but by no 
means in the rich profusion of the upper part of the valley. 
There were a few shrubs of barberry, some magnificent white 
lilies in blossom, and flowering pomegranates clustered round 
the houses. 

Below T'i-Tzii-Yi the sides of the hills again became 
more steep ; but still, wherever amongst precipices or steep 
slopes a few roods of ground not steeper than 30° could be 
found, there was sure to be a patch of Indian corn. This 



Vil. MAUJ'AIS PAS. 137 

is about the steepest sk^ up which a man can va]k izaided 
by his hands. From the c^>posite side of the river the fxjt 
of a slope of this kind has all the appeazance of being nearlv 
vertical, and the people hoeing on it look like &s on a 
walL There are generally ten or tr^dre together, dressed in 
a line that would please the eye of a British drJU-seygearir : 
and as they advance from the bottom upwards, seec frozs 
this point of view, it seems that they most shp dciwn arkd be 
precipitated into the river below. 

The road as yet did not improve— rising up one skk: of 
a spur, and zigza^ing down the other by a despeiaiely su^ep 
and slippery ladder of rock. \^Ticrever there had been land- 
slips, the track was strewn with gigantic rocks and sharp 
stones. All the projecting rocky points were exceedingly 
precipitous, and generally almost vertical on their western 
sides, the eastern faces of the spurs sloping more gradually, 
and clearly indicating the direction of the geological up- 
heaval The river twisted and turned in a most mrxAnyrt- 
hensible manner, and wherever it washed the foot of one <A 
these cliffs, the road was scooped out of the face, or propped 
up in the usual fashion. In one place, instead ^A using 
poles, long stones were put horizontally into holes bored in 
the face of the rock ; across these other stones were laid — 
and thus the road was formed. Here and there, there was 
only just room for the ponies' feet ; and in one place, when I 
was looking at the scenery rather than at the pony, he stepped 
so close to the edge of a rotten bank as to elicit a shout of 
dismay from the usually phlegmatic Ma-Fu. This indi- 
vidual would walk behind, and where the descent wax 
a very steep one, over big stones or down a slippery stair- 
case, he would hold the animars tail, to prevent the ^iiMsade 
into space that would inevitably have ensued on a false 
step. 

Lung-An-Fu is situated at the foot of a spur thrown out 
by the mountains towards the river, the valley of whirh 
opens out considerably just before reaching the city. It h 
enclosed by a very long wall, running nearly a mile up \xAh 
sides of the spur and across the top. It seemed a very small 



138 BOAT DESCENT. CH. 

place ; and, as Chin-Tai remarked, there was a good deal of 
wall, but not much house. 

An adventurous raft was here seen on the river ; but, con- 
sidering the nature of the torrent, I was not surprised to find 
it alone in its ambition for the perils of shipwreck. The 
iron chain suspension-bridges now became so frequent as to 
make it a matter for sincere congratulation that the Chinese 
had not discovered the irritating Western system of the 
toll 

On the isth we had entered the country of stone bridges, 
and a little below Hsiang-^^ai-Pa there was an exceedingly 
elegant one-arched stone bridge. Ssii-Ch'uan is justly 
celebrated for its stone bridges, and we all began to realise 
the proximity of the plains. Nearly all the water was off the 
rice fields ; the Indian corn was high ; there were melons 
in the gardens ; the climate was hotter ; the grass by the 
wayside was rather burnt ; and for the first time in this trip 
there was dust upon the road. The river had at length 
escaped the trammels of the mountains, and, though still a 
rushing stream, much encumbered by rapids, boats now 
navigate it, and can descend all the way to the Ocean Sea. 
The coolies had counted on an idle day, but Chin-Tai 
brought back the mournful news that the craft at this place 
were not large enough for us ; so, with sorrowful counten- 
ances, they shouldered their loads and tramped to P'ing-I- 

The 1 6th of June was a joyous day for the doolies. We 
walked about a quarter of a mile to where a boat sufficiently 
large to accommodate us all was waiting for us. We were 
soon all packed and under way, and began the descent 
There were rapids at about every half-mile, and the current 
was everywhere very strong. Many boats were tracking up, 
and the old familiar songs of the trackers resounded amongst 
the rocks. We seemed to fly past the shore, and several 
times in the shallows there was a scraping and bumping and 
a taking in of water over the bow that would have been 
alarming to weak nerves. 

The first part of the journey was through narrow gorges; 



END OF EXCURSION. 



139 



with precipices at each side ; but at last the valley opened 
out for good, and we bade a final farewell to the mountains. 
Two days' boating carried us to Mien-Chou, a distance of 
forty-five miles, where we disembarked, and a march of 
three days brought us back to Ch'§ng-Tu. 





CH'f. 



CHAPTER Viri. 

:-TU, AND THE ROAD TO TIBET. 



ccauHl (if Ch'Sttg-Til, as givm by Mareo Pole — Arid by Fadrt Martin 
Manini—nescrifliim ef tk£ Modern City —The Rhirs, and PraMU 
C/iangt! — Destruction of Documents— Arrival of Mr. Mtsay — 
Politieal Aipteit tompd Change in Traveltet's inlaided RmiU — 
Didsion to Tnn'il Homewnrd viS Bal'aitg and BAama — Vilii 
lothi Great Monastery of Wen-Shu-yiiaa— Its Euilftings and Cttri- 
atUits—CkapfJe/Mtditation—ArUiquilitsefCk'lng-Tu—lHvUatim 
to a Picnic— Notable Guests — The Dinner and its PeculicwUia 
— Table Manners and Customs ^ Thre/^enings of Draught — 
'Organisation of Departure' — To Shuang-Litt—Suferstitionasto 
/•'ires in Tawns^Vast Fertility of Ceuntry — Personal Criticisms im 
Trovelleri— Chinese Ida of Foreigners in general— First Sight <f the 



CH. VIII. MARCO POLO'S ACCOUNT. 141 

Mountains — Fine Bridge on ike Nan-Ho -Great Coolie-loads — 
Tibetan Embassy — Fai- Chang- Yi — Faved Road in Decay — Ya- 
ChoU'Fu — Its Commercial Importance — Cake- Tea — Coolies employed 
on the Traffic — Traffic from Yiin-Nan — Mountcuns begin to close 
round — The Little Fass — Alleged Terrors of the Hills — The Great 
FasSi and the Tai-Hsiang Fass — * Straw-Sandal Flat* — Ching-Chi- 
Hsien — Htia- Ling- Ping — River of Ta-Chien-Lu — Bridge swept 
, away — Lu-Ting-Chiao and its Iron Suspension bridge — Dominoes 
— Character of People of SsH-Ch'uan— Hsiao-Peng- Pa— Scantier 
Vegetation — Arrival at Ta-Chien-Lu, 

Marco Polo thus describes the plain and city of Ch'eng- 
Tu-Fu :— 

* When you have travelled those twenty' days westward 
through the mountains, as I have told you, then you arrive 
at a plain belonging to a province called Sindafu, which still 
is on the confines of Manzi, and the capital city of which is 
also called Sindafu. This city was in former days a rich and 
noble one, and the kings who reigned there were very great 
and wealthy. It is a good twenty miles in compass ; but it 
is divided in the way that I shall tell you. You see, the 
king of this province, in the days of old, when he found 
himself drawing near to death, leaving three sons behind 
him, commanded that the city should be divided into three 
parts, and that each of his sons should have one ; so each 
of these parts is separately walled about, though all three 
are surrounded by the common wall of the city. Each of 
the three sons was king, having his own part of the city and 
his own share of the kingdom, and each of them in fact was 
a great and wealthy king. But the Great Kaan conquered 
the kingdom of these three kings, and stripped them of their 
inheritance. 

'Through the midst of this city runs a large river, in 
which they catch a great quantity of fish. It is a good half- 
mile wide, and very deep withal, and so long that it reaches 
all the way to the Ocean Sea — a very long way, equal to 
eighty or one hundred days' journey ; and the name of the 
river is Kian-Suy. The multitude of vessels that navigate 
this river is so vast that no one who should read or hear the 
tale would believe it. The quantities of merchandise also 
which merchants carry up and down this river are past all 



142 THE MODERN CITY, CH. 

belief. In fact it is so big that it seems to be a sea rather 
than a river. Let us now speak of a great bridge which 
crosses this river within the city. This bridge is of stone ; 
it is seven paces in width, and half a mile in length (the 
river being that much in width, as I told you), and along its 
length, on either side, there are columns of marble to bear 
the roof— for the bridge is roofed over from end to end with 
timber, and that all richly painted ; and on this bridge there 
are houses, in which a great deal of trade and industry is 
carried on. But these houses are all of wood merely, and 
they are put up in the morning and taken down in the 
evening. Also there stands upon the bridge the Great Kaan's 
Comerque — that is to say, his custom-house, where his toll 
and tax are levied ; and I can tell you that the dues taken 
on this bridge bring to the lord a thousand pieces of fine 
gold every day, and more. The people are all idolaters.' 

The city of Ch'eng-Tu is still a rich and noble one, some- 
what irregular in shape, and surrounded by a strong wall in 
a perfect state of repair, in which there are eight bastions, 
four being pierced by gates. It is now three and a half 
miles long by about two and a half miles broad, the longest 
side lying about east-south-east and west-north-west, so that 
its compass in the present day is about twelve miles. A 
stream, about thirty feet wide, runs through the city from 
west to east ; parts of this are embanked with perpendicular 
revetments on either side. 

At one point it is spanned by three bridges close together, 
each of stone, with a single arch. The one in the centre has 
at one time evidently been larger and of more importance, 
for on the other side of the road that lies between the water 
and the houses, almost buried in the buildings, there is a 
stone lion with his back to the brook. This has clearly been 
the former end of the bridge, so that the houses must have 
advanced some yards since this was built. 

The city is well laid out, the streets, straight and at right 
angles to one another, well and carefully paved. One of 
rtiem is very pretty, and runs by the side of the stream that 
flows through the city. Looking in at the doors of the fine 
shops on the right, respectable old gentlemen can be dimly 



VIII. PROBABLE CHANGES OF RIVER-COURSE, 143 

discerned in the semi-obscurity smoking their long pipes. 
Overhead, a bamboo matting, or a bit of trellis-work covered 
with creepers, shelters the street from the glare of the sun ; 
while on the left hand is a strip of garden, a yard wide, 
enclosed on either side by trellis-work covered with scarlet- 
runners, whose small red flowers form a pleasing contrast to 
the fresh green foliage, and through the leaves the brook is 
seen sparkling in the sun. The shops in Ch'eng-Tu are very 
good, with handsome fronts ; every description of goods is 
sold in them ; there is especially a very large trade in silk, 
and Ritter quotes Martini as saying : 

' In the river Kin, which flows on the southern side ot 
the city, they wash the silk, which thereby attains an extra- 
ordinary brilliancy.' 

The main river still runs at the south side. It is about a 
hundred yards wide, and crossed by many bridges ; one of 
them, ninety yards long, has a roof, and, as is the case on 
nearly all covered bridges, hucksters sit down under the 
shelter on both sides, as in the days of the old Venetian 
traveller, and sell whatever they can to passers by. There 
are still large numbers of junks on this river, which come up 
from Ch^ung-Ch'ing, and possibly some from the * Ocean 
Sea.' 

It is difficult to account for the great difference between 
the state of the city as it was in the time of the early writers 
and the present condition of Ch'^ng-Tu. The hills, however, 
that enclose the plain of Ch'^ng-Tu are of sandstone, and 
are of course easily worn away by water. The drainage of 
the basin is by a river of considerable size, which must in 
the course of five centuries have deepened its bed at its 
point of exit from the plain, where it is closed in on both 
sides by the sandstone hills. At the same time it would 
seem probable that the debris brought down by numerous 
streams from the surrounding mountains would rather have 
tended to raise than to lower the general level of the plain 
itself. Anyhow, when we consider how very flat the plain 
now is, we should, without the aid of the historian, be almost 
driven to the conclusion that it was in former ages the bottom 
of a lake. 



144 MESNY ARRIVES. CH, 

Martini tells us that some of the ponds, lakes, rivers, or 
canals were artificial ; and the river full half a mile in width 
spoken of by Polo may, in reality, have been a shallow fleet 
crossed by a causeway, or even by a long bridge such as he 
describes. 

In the course of the last five centuries, as the bed of the 
river at its exit has been deepened, the plain has gradually 
been drained : and thus will nature have performed her 
part of the change.^ 

It is an historical fact well-known at Ch'eng-Tu that the 
city formerly covered a very much larger area ; for in olden 
days, the temple of Wu-Hou-Tz'u, now a mile or two outside 
the city to the south-west, was within the walls. 

Since the days when Marco Polo travelled this way, the 
times have been turbulent indeed : the city has been 
pillaged, lawless bands have roamed with fire and sword 
across the fertile plain. In the early part of the Ming 
dynasty (commenced a.d. 1368), the whole province was 
overrun by a brigand named Chang-Shien-Chung ; he 
went about ravaging and destroying everything, and is 
pictured as a devil incarnate \ amongst other things he 
destroyed all the books, so that the ancient written history 
of the place is lost There is therefore nothing improbable 
in the total disappearance of the fine works spoken of by 
Polo. Thus may the hand of man have combined with 
nature to change completely the appearance of the city of 
Ch'eng-Tu. 

On the day after my return to the provincial capital, I 
called upon the French missionaries in the afternoon, and 
when I went home (for I had succeeded in engaging a 
private house, into which I gladly moved from the uncleanly 
inn) I found that Mesny had at length arrived from Kwei- 
Yang-Fu, where he had been living for many years. 

Now the very serious question presented itself, whether 

* The fact that an actual bifurcation of waters seems to take place 
near Ch'eng-Tu (see Richthofen's China, p. 327)— one branch flowing 
south, as the Ta-Kiang, Min-Kiang, or what not, to Siu-Chou-Fu, 
and the other south-east, as the To-Kiang, or Chung- Kiang of maps, to 
Lu-Chou — renders change in the distribution of the streams about the 
city highly probable. — K 



VIII. CHANGE OF ROUTE, 145 

I could carry out my intention of travelling through Kansu 
to Kashgar. My whole difficulty lay in European politics. 
Supposing that I had found myself unable to proceed any 
further towards Kashgar than Urumchi, I could have passed 
through Russia, if there had been no danger of England 
being entangled in a war with that country. But with 
England and Russia at war, this of course would have been 
impossible ; and if unable to enter Kashgar, I should 
have had no choice but the dreary journey in mid-winter 
back to Peking ; and even should the road to Kashgar 
have been clear, the mountain passes would not have been 
open, and I must have waited north of the Himalayas until 
the spring. This would not have deterred me for one 
moment but for the critical state of affairs between our 
country and Russia ; in the event of war it was equally my 
duty and desire to be somewhere within hail, and I could 
not feel myself justified in running the risk of being buried 
for so many months in Central Asia. 

This was the more disappointing, as I had everything 
prepared for the journey — provisions, clothes, and about 
three thousand taels in silver. I was very loth to give it up ; 
but after anxiously reading every word in the scanty items of 
European news that were available, and after thinking over 
the matter night and day, sorely against my will, and with a 
heavy sigh, I at last determined to come home with as much 
speed as possible, but at the same time to travel by some 
new road. 

The only route left was that by Bat'ang and A-Tun-Tzu ; 
for the objections that applied to the Kashgar route applied 
equally to the only alternative, a journey vid. Lassa, which 
might or might not have been practicable. The die was 
cast at length. I made up my mind that I would travel 
with the utmost speed vid, Bat'ang. My desire to get on 
was ably seconded by Mesny ; and, considering the nature 
of the country, and the difficulties always to be encountered, 
the journey actually was a very fast one, and we had the 
satisfaction of thinking that during the whole sixteen weeks 
we never lost a single hour. 

Before leaving, however, I thought it well to take the 

L 



146 A MONASTERY; CH. 

opportunity of seeing something of Ch'dng-Tu and the 
manners of its inhabitants. The city still bears on its face 
all the evidences of wealth and prosperity ; the people are 
well dressed, and some of the temples in the city are richly 
endowed. 

We paid a visit one day to the Wen-Shu- Yiian (Literary 
Book Hall), a very fine monastery near the north gate, built 
some time during the Sung dynasty (from a.d. 960 to 1279). 
It was then called the Chin-King-Sze ; it fell into decay 
during the Mongol occupation, and was rebuilt by the 
second emperor of the present dynasty, the famous Kang- 
Shi (better known in the form of Khang-Hi), who reigned 
1662-1722. This emperor richly endowed it with lands ; 
but, notwithstanding its wealth, it seems to have been pre- 
destined to misfortune, for it was again neglected, until the 
time of Kia-Ching (Kia-King), the fifth emperor of the 
present dynasty (1795-1820) when it was rebuilt by public 
subscription with stone instead of wooden pillars. Since 
that time it has gone on increasing in wealth and magnifi- 
cence, and is now one of the richest in the country. To 
have the right of living at this monastery it is necessary to 
be a priest of a particular sect ; but, besides the priests, there 
are resident here a number of students qualifying themselves 
for holy orders ; altogether there are about one hundred and 
fifty inmates. 

A remarkable air of refinement and cleanliness pervaded 
the place. The courtyard was laid with smooth-cut flag- 
stones, not one out of its place, and not a weed or blade of 
grass permitted to grow in the interstices. All the buildings 
were in perfect repair, and a man was walking about the 
court with a cross-bow. His employment was to shoot 
stones at the sparrows that nfested the roofs, and which, if 
left to their own devices, would do serious damage. Imme- 
diately on the right of the entrance was a very clean recep- 
tion-room ; and whilst preparations were being made to escort 
us over the establishment, we were refreshed with the usual 
cups of tea. We were not kept waiting above a couple of 
minutes, and then we were invited to proceed. The refec- 
tory, a long wooden building on the right-hand side, opened 



VIII. ITS BUILDINGS AND CURIOSITIES, 147 

into the court ; here were twenty-five tables, each prepared 
for six people. For each person was laid one pair of red 
wooden chopsticks and three porcelain bowls, one for rice, 
one for vegetables, and one for tea, no meat of any descrip- 
tion ever being permitted here ; everything, the tables, 
bowls, and chopsticks were beautifully clean— a most surpris- 
ing thing in this country, where usually dirt reigns supreme. 
Passing this, we entered a chapel, where, at the end, the 
repulsive countenances of a number of huge and hideous 
images were partially obscured by a kind of throne for the 
prior, whence he discourses on the religious 'classics to the 
students. 

On either side of the chapel was a reception-room. The 
general arrangement of these rooms is almost always the 
same, and whether a private house, a ya-m^n, or a temple, 
the description of one stands as a representation of all the 
others : no furniture in the middle of the room ; along two 
sides are arranged, in symmetrical though inartistic order, 
the usual heavy, stiff, uncompromising, and utterly uncom- 
fortable arm-chairs of China ; between each two is a little 
high and square table, all corners and angularities, like the 
Chinese character. At the end of the room is the kang, or 
raised dais, ten feet long, four feet broad, and two feet high, 
where in the centre is placed a small table, six or eight 
inches high, between two cushions of the most brilliant 
scarlet — these are the seats of honour ; and footstools of 
wood for those seated thereon complete the furniture. 

For ornament, a few bronzes, or the roots of trees carved 

into representations of impossible dragons, are arranged 

behind the kang ; while from the ceiling hang paper lamps, 

some of them really artistically painted, and arranged just 

low enough to knock off the hat of a foreigner. In China, 

etiquette rules that in polite society the hat is kept on the 

head, and at a dinner party it is amusing, when all the 

guests are intimate and of the same social standing, to see 

the alacrity with which permission is always asked and given 

to exchange the official hat for the little skull-cap, which 

each person's servant has somewhere secreted about the 

capacious folds of his garment 

L 2 



148 CHAPEL OF MEDITATION. CH. 

A collation of tea and cakes, sweet but nasty, was looked 
at rather than partaken of, while the monks gave us what 
history of the building I have been able to relate, sitting, as 
etiquette ordains, with their backs quite stiff, on the extreme 
edges of their chairs, and with their bodies slightly turned 
round to their guests. 

From this we ascended to the upper story, where the 
principal room was a magnificent chapel filled with gifts and 
curiosities, a very fine and richly-decorated altar, rubbings 
from ancient tablets, a great deal of blue and white china, 
pictures painted on glass from Canton, and, amongst other 
things, a present from a young lady of a piece of embroidery 
entirely worked with her own hair. This represented the 
goddess of mercy sitting under a bamboo, the leaves of 
which were really most admirably represented. 

In this chapel also the contributors to the building, 
maintenance, or decoration of the temple are immortalised, 
their names being written in gold on black tablets and put 
under a glass case. Here also is the library, where huge 
cupboards are filled with books of the religious classics, 
which form the unique and dreary study of the inhabitants. 

We passed on to another chapel set apart for meditations. 
Here the priests and students, in yellow robes and with 
shaven heads, come at least once a day, and, lighting an 
incense-stick before one of the images, sit down at the side 
of the room and meditate, trying to work themselves into a 
state of religious ecstasy, in which they shall be entirely 
withdrawn from impressions from the outside. 

A few of them appeared to be really in this state of semi- 
unconsciousness ; but the majority, though trying to look as 
if they did not see us, could not resist a sidelong glance 
every now and then. They remain in this state about half 
an hour at a time. The impression formed upon my mind 
by the appearance of those who had succeeded in their 
extraordinary task was rather a painful one. 

Passing through another chapel, where a number of 
beautiful red and yellow lotus -plants were growing in pots, 
where a tailor was at work in a corner, and in which were 
the portraits of all the deceased priors, we again came to the 



VIII. INVITATION TO A PIC-NIC. 149 

gate, where a number of huge and hideous figures — the 
guardians of the place — were grinning horribly, and where 
the monks with exquisite politeness bade adieu to their 
unwonted guests. 

We went from this, along a road between walls that 
enclosed magnificent vegetable gardens, to the grave of a 
concubine of Shu -Wang. 

Shu- Wang (' King of Shu ') was the aboriginal king of 
this country before its conquest by the Chinese, and he 
lived in the time of the Chinese emperor T'sin-Shih-Hwang- 
Ti, the builder of the Great Wall of China, in the third 
century B.C. 

The grave is an artificial mound of yellow clay, about 
one hundred yards long, running north-west and south-east, 
and about twenty yards broad; its two ends being raised 
about ten feet above the other parts. At the south-east 
extremity, half buried in the clay that has fallen on it, is a 
huge limestone disc. Neither its diameter nor its full thick- 
ness are exposed, but, judging from the segment, its diameter 
must be about sixteen feet, and there is a thickness of three 
feet visible ; how much more there may be I cannot say. 
Near the circumference of the stone, there is a circular 
hollow about six inches across, but it is very irregular, and 
I should say was accidental. The stone has evidently 
fallen from its place, so that any examination as to its 
position was useless. But it must have been a great labour 
to bring this enormous slab from beyond Kuan-Hsien, the 
nearest place where the limestone is found. 

We were invited to a picnic at a temple not far from the 
Wu-Hou-Tz'ii, at which place it was agreed that our party 
should meet. 

Though the sun was powerful there was a little air moving 
outside the city, and the heat was by no means oppressive. 
We were about an hour reaching the Wu-Hou-Tz'u. Here 
our friends were waiting for us, and we all went on together 
to a temple, built, during the seventh century, by the great 
poet Tu- Fu, as a country residence. The buildings include 
a number of rooms, covered passages, corridors, and pavilions, 
furnished with little tables and chairs, where the people of 



ISO TABLE ETIQUETTE, CH. 

Ch'eng-Tu come to picnic. The grounds are large, contain- 
ing fine trees and great numbers of large bamboos, that 
everywhere cast a pleasant and grateful shade. There axe 
ponds with tortoises and fish in great numbers, and a couple 
of dwarfs with enormous heads earn a livelihood by selling 
bread and cakes for the people to feed the fish with. 

We first went into a nice large cool room, where all the 
woodwork was painted black ; but, as the upper half of both 
the long sides was entirely window, there was no sombre im- 
pression. All the windows were open, and the eyes rested 
on the fresh green foliage, which almost completely excluded 
the mid -day glare, whilst the breeze gently rustling the bam- 
boo leaves, and the occasional caw of a rook or a magpie, 
produced a pleasant feeling of repose. 

We found the company assembled. There was a very 
fat, heavy-looking man, a civilian, with the rank of Fan-Tai, 
by name Wei, whose manners were polished to the highest 
degree, and who would have been profoundly shocked at 
the smallest breach of the intricate etiquette of the Chinese. 
In remarkable contrast to him, a tall thin man, with the 
rank of Chen-Tai, was walking about. His face differed 
much from the usual Chinese type : he looked as if he was 
more of a man than the Chinese generally appear ; and, 
although his face and manners betokened a love of ease, 
there was none of the listless, apathetic appearance about him 
so often seen in this people. 

After our hot ride (in chairs) we sat down, and the grate- 
ful beverage was soon introduced. Mesny and I were pressed 
to take seats on the kang ; but among so many we left it 
unoccupied and sat down on the chairs at the side of the 
room. 

A basin of hot water and a piece of rag were brought in. 
An attendant, whose hands must have been made of cast- 
iron, dipped the rag into the almost boiling water, and wrung 
it out several times. He brought it to me, and I wiped my 
face and hands in correct Chinese style. The rag, or, as 
Hue calls it, a linen table napkin,^ was dipped afresh and 
wrung out for each person present. 

* Hue, U Empire Chinois, vol. i. p. 184. 



VIII. VIANDS, 151 

Mesny then opened the conversation by asking every one 
he did not know, * What is your honourable name ? ' ' What 
is your honourable age ? ' * Where do you come from ? ' 
and in return answered similar questions with true celestial 
politeness, and although I did not know a dozen words of 
Chinese I could see what was going on. 

The secretary then proposed to take me round the 
temple, and we walked about looking at the tortoises, the 
ponds, the dwarfs, and the idols. 

He showed me an isolated building in one place, \iith 
four very large images of Buddha in the centre, and upwards 
of a thousand pictures of the head of Buddha on the walls. 
We then came back, and after a time signs of dinner ap- 
peared in the form of a zakouska^ for, before seating ourselves 
at the round table, a bowl of soup and four little puddings, 
with minced meat and onions inside, were handed to each 
person. 

I did not know how to manage these things ; but I 
watched the others take up a pudding, put it into the soup, 
partially break it, and so eat it. I did the same ; but there 
was too much garlic for my taste. This appeared to me 
quite a meal in itself ; but my Chinese friends finished their 
four puddings, and looked upon this exactly as the Russians 
do upon the little bit of salt fish or caviare they take to whet 
their appetites. The pudding to put into the soup also is quite 
a Russian custom. 

Soon afterwards, at about half-past four, we sat down to 
a very extensive dinner. To every man was assigned a pair 
of chopsticks, one little piece of paper, one little saucer of 
soy, one china spoon, one saucer of water-melon seeds and 
kernels of peach-stones, and one cup about as big as the 
bottom of an egg cup (without a handle). 

At a given signal every one at once dipped their chop- 
sticks into the centre dish and commenced operations. The 
silk merchant was very polite to me, and always assisted me 
if he saw I was not sufficiently skilful with my chopsticks. 
The guests thus went through about twelve dishes that were 
on the table, some sweet, some sour, some raw, and some 
cooked. They were much the same dishes that I had seen 



1 52 BE VERA GES, en: 

at Shanghai or Peking — shrimps raw, duck or ham cut into 
httle bits, sugar-candy, lotus-root, walnuts cooked in soyi 
giblets, with preserved eggs, shrimps, and other things, all 
equally flavourless. A servant then came in, and removing 
two or three of the nearly empty bowls, brought in others ; 
and so on, dish succeeded dish in somewhat weary mono- 
tony ; duck appeared in two other forms, fowl came on twice, 
tripe was dressed in two ways, and a dish of peaches stewed 
in arrowroot was given in the middle of dinner. There was 
one' dish of really excellent mutton, and of course at least 
half a dozen of pork in different forms. The greatest 
delicacy was minced pork, dressed with something sweet, 
and wrapped up in a huge lotus-leaf. To our Western ideas 
the mess the table and floor get into on an occasion of this 
kind is horrid. There are no plates ; when the dishes are 
brought in, if they are solids they are piled up as high as 
possible, and if they are soups the bowls are filled to running 
over. In helping himself with a chopstick the most skilful 
will now and then drop something, and to eat the gravy the 
spoon is dipped into the central bowl, and then put down 
wet and greasy on the table. 

. The deMs also collects on the table more or less, though 
a person accustomed to these things does not leave much, 
for he spits or throws it on to the floor. Bread is not offered 
until the end of the meal, and when I asked for some, 
earlier during the entertainment, a whole baker's shop of 
loaves was brought in for me. The drink was a very 
palatable fermented liquor made from rice, and was taken 
hot. 

Directly two guests have taken wine with one another 
the cups are filled by the attendants. The silk merchant 
was very anxious on my account, and asked me to drink 
with him after each course, and seeing that the mutton was 
the thing I really liked, he had it specially left for my edifi- 
cation. 

The waiters were all naked to the waist, and the guests 
would have been the same if Mesny and I had not been 
present ; but out of deference to us they kept on a thin gar- 
ment over their bodies. 



VIII. ORGANISATION OF DEPARTURE. 153 

The last dish of all was a bowl of what Europeans call 
* conjee ' — rice boiled almost to a pulp, and served up with 
the thick rice-water. In ordinary society a bowl of plain 
rice takes the place of this ; but at these grand entertain- 
ments it is customary to have conjee instead. 

After this the guests laid their chopsticks across the 
empty bowl, rose up and saluted one another, and then, 
again putting the chopsticks on to the table, the dinner was 
over. 

I gave each of the gentlemen a Manilla cigar, produced 
a penknife, showed them how to cut off the ends, and offered 
them a light from a box of wax vestas, at which they were 
much delighted. The general and my French-speaking 
friend lighted their cigars ; but the Fan-Tai and the silk 
merchant put away theirs for some other opportunity. 

While the servants were clearing up the mess we strolled 
about the grounds. The general, pacing " up ^ and down 
smoking the cigar, had far more the air of an Englishman 
than a Chinaman ; but the secretary, although he seemed 
to like the smoke, did not quite manage it d PEuropkenne. 
We loitered about some time, and many amusing stories 
were told. 

The 9th of July, our last day in Ch'eng-Tu, was, as may 
be imagined, a busy one. We paid a final visit to our kind 
friends the missionaries, and then all our acquaintances came 
to say* good-bye to us. We were informed that the drought 
was becoming very serious, even in this province ; at the 
time of my visit there was as yet no scarcity of food, but in 
the neighbouring provinces the famine eventuated in the 
awful calamities that have filled the readers of our daily 
papers with horror ; and even in Ssii-Ch'uan the drought, 
though not so disastrous as elsewhere, was in 1878 very 
dreadful. 

In the fertile plain of Ch'eng-Tu itself, the rice crop 
never fails, even in the driest season ; for the brimming 
brooks that course by the roadside and sparkle in the sun 
derive their supplies from the streams which, descending 
from the snow-clad heights, are never-failing, and unite to 
form the considerable river of Kuan-Hsien, There the im- 



154 



MOSQUnV'CURTAINS, 



CH. 



petuosity of the turbulent torrent, which dashes and foams 
over its rocky bed, is curbed by the irrigation works that 
divide the river into numerous streams, and those, meander- 
ing through the beautiful plain, and subdivided into canals 
and yet smaller ducts, and finally pumped up by the simple 
treadmills, leave not an acre of land without its perennial 
supply of water. Thus, even at a time when all the horrors 
of famine and pestilence were desolating the lands that lay 
just beyond the surrounding hills, this favoured spot was 
still enabled to present a scene of comfort and tranquillity. 

When at last our preparations were complete, our bag- 
gage was weighed and divided into forty portions, for forty 
coolies were required to carry it ; and a bargain was event- 
ually struck with the coolie-master to supply us with sixty 
coolies, to take us, our chairs, our baggage, and our servants 
to Ta-Chien-Lu, at the rate of 3*2 taels per coohe. 

The mosquitoes had already sounded their warning 
notes, and although they had not yet given me any trouble, 
Mesny had been so devoured that I thought it advisable to 
see about mosquito curtains. The Chinese have a capital 




arrangement for travelling-curtains. The top is made with 
a little triangular pocket at each corner. The ends of four 
light bamboos are joined together by two brass tubes, and 
the other ends of the bamboos inserted in the small pocketSL 
stretch the top of the curtain. One nail in the wall or the 
ceiling is all that is required, and the curtain can be put up 
or taken down in a few minutes. The bamboos, being of 
no great length, are easily carried. I bought one of these, 
and found some regular Indian mosquito-gauze in a shop in 
the city, with which some curtains were made that served 
me in good stead. I used them almost every night through- 



VIII. CHINESE IDEA OF FOREIGNERS. 155 

out my journey, and they effectually kept out, not only mos- 
quitoes, but insects of many other kinds. 

It is not customary in China for a servant to ride in a 
chair with more than two coolies, and an official is forbidden 
to permit his servant to do so ; but I did not feel myself 
bound by Chinese customs, for my boys, both over six feet, 
would always have been miles behind me if I had not 
allowed them three coolies each. 

The organisation of departure, as Hue is pleased to term 
the disorder of a start in China, was now complete ; the 
baggage was all packed, the coolies' bickerings gradually 
were settled as they moved off one by one, and at length, 
on the morning of the loth of July, we left the provincial 
capital, and started joyously on the high road to the Tibetan 
borders. 

The march to Shuang-Liu was over the busy, fertile plain, 
entirely given up to rice cultivation. In the gardens there 
were melons, cucumbers, all sorts of vegetables, and patches 
of Indian com. The country was beautifully watered ; 
Httle rills brimming with water coursing by the roadside, or 
among the fields ; and, as elsewhere on this plain, there 
were numerous detached farmhouses embowered in trees 
and bamboos. West of Shuang-Liu the road still led us 
over the level plain, where the amazing fertility of the soil 
was apparent in the magnificent crops of rice that now, from 
two to three feet high, presented to the eye a vast expanse 
of the richest green. 

Riding through a town, where, as it was market-day, all 
the streets were crowded, I was much edified by the remarks 
passed by the crowd upon my person. I wore a helmet, 
and one man said, * Does not he think himself a swell with 
a hat like a ram's horn ? ' * Yes,' replied another ; * but look 
at his nose ; he might be an official with that nose.' 

The Chinese are great physiognomists, and always admire 
a good-sized nose ; generally, their own noses are perfectly 
flat, without any bridge, and by saying I might be an official, 
the man meant that my nose was good, and that there- 
fore I ought to possess some talent that would fit me for an 
official position. 



156 CHINESE IDEA OF FOREIGNERS' CH. 

Another man said that I had tremendously long legs. 
The Chinese always wear such loose baggy raiment, that in 
appearance the length of their legs is very much diminished. 

The observations that are made are not as a rule very 
flattering, and forcibly illustrate the old proverb about 
listeners. I once heard of an English gentleman of whom 
an educated Chinaman remarked with the intention of being 
highly complimentary : * Why^ he is not so dirty as a MongoL' 
A Mongol never takes his clothes off all the winter, eats fat 
and grease by the pound, wipes his fingers on and drops 
messes all over his leather coat, and is about as greasy and 
dirty a personage as can well be imagined On another 
occasion, an Englishman was told that he did not smell so 
bad as a Man-Tzii. However little it may flatter our Western 
vanity to admit it, there can be no doubt that every nation 
has its peculiar odour ; but on this point I have already 
remarked. 

It may seem impossible for us to understand how such 
remarks can be made seriously, and without the smallest 
offensive intention ; but this is only another proof of the 
difficulty of understanding the Chinese. To judge of a 
Chinaman's character, we must look with the eyes of a 
Chinaman, and put ourselves outside every conviction that 
we have formed, even about ourselves. 

A Chinaman from his earliest infancy is brought up to 
believe that besides the Chinese nation there are in the 
world only some few insignificant barbarians. The chief 
knowledge of foreigners w^as originally derived from inter- 
course, peaceful or warlike, with the Man-Tzii, Tibetans, or 
Mongols ; and even now the number of Chinese who have 
been in contact with Europeans is very small. When, 
therefore, a Chinaman had to form his idea of foreigners, 
there was nothing very wonderful in his comparing them with 
the Man-Tzii, the only type of foreigners known to him ; nor 
was this idea, after all, very much more erroneous than that 
prevalent not so very long ago amongst many English people, 
that frogs formed the principal part of a Frenchman's diet, 
or the opinion that is even now indulged in by many of our 
home-staying countrymen, that all foreign cookery is greasy. 



VIII. CHINESE EMBASSY TO TIBET, 157 

It was with intense pleasure that, at half-past two in the 
afternoon of the 12 th, when the sun was darting its most 
fiery rays upon us, we caught the first sight of the mountains 
on the horizon ; and our minds dwelt with pleasure on the 
snow-fields, and awful glaciers, so vividly depicted by 
former travellers in the regions we were now approaching. 
Soon afterwards, as if to cheer us, an easterly breeze sprung 
up, and the thermometer falling to 93°, the weather felt 
quite pleasant. 

On the 13th we came to the river called Nan-Ho, the 
bed of which, where we struck it, was about one hundred 
yards wide ; but, following down stream about two hundred 
yards, we crossed by a remarkably fine fifteen-arched bridge 
of red stone, two hundred and forty yards long and nine 
and a half yards wide, with a somewhat boastful inscription 
on a tablet proclaiming it the finest in Ssu-Ch'uan. 

After passing the river, we entered an undulating 
country, the hills of a reddish-yellow clay, and well wooded, 
principally with pines in small clumps. The road, running 
in many places between hedges, woulc^have put me much in 
mind of some of the Hampshire scenery, if it had not been 
for the rice in terraces. The cultivation was only on the 
flat ground, the slopes being everywhere given up to trees. 
The road was exceedingly tortuous, winding about and 
twisting in a most perplexing manner, following the summit 
of a ridge from one hundred to two hundred feet above the 
valleys. We met coolies carrying logs of wood, sometimes 
as much as two hundred pounds in weight. These enor- 
mpus loads are carried about ten miles a day, the wood 
being principally for coffins, which, when made from a 
particular and much-prized species of tree, cost sometimes 
as much as 300/. or 400/. Here nearly all the women had 
feefe of the natural size, and many of those whose feet were 
cramped had not squeezed them in nearly to the usual 
extent ; but those seen about were mostly of the poorer class, 
for the richer folk do not permit their women to walk about 
much in public. 

At Pai- Chang- Yi, we found one of the embassies that 
were just now on the Tibetan road established in one of the 



158 ROAD IN DECAY. CH. 

inns. The ambassador, if he can be dignified with such a 
title, was an official of very inferior position. The Chinese 
always send petty officials as ambassadors, in order to show 
their immense superiority to foreigners ; it is as much as 
saying * Oh ! anything is good enough for a foreigner ; ' and 
it must have gone sorely against the grain to despatch two 
men of high rank to England. 

The people here are not such early risers as in the north 
of China ; as we marched through Pai-Chang-Yi ^ in the 
morning none of the shops were open, and there were very 
few people about in the streets. 

A Chinese town with its shops all shut up is even more 
dreary in appearance than Regent Street on Sunday. The 
shop fronts — when open there are no fronts — are made of 
dirty wood, from which the paint has long worn off; and 
everything looks shabby to the last degree. 

The road was most unpleasant for walking on. It was 
paved, and the original intentions of the constructor had 
evidently been excellent, for most of the stones had been 
cut quite flat, and as. the ground was tolerably level, if the 
execution had been as meritorious as the conception, the 
road would have left nothing to desire. But the contractor, 
in order to save money, had made use of the rough stuff he 
found lying about, and had put in at every foot or so an 
uncut boulder that thrust itself above the general level in 
a most obtrusive and unpleasant manner. No doubt, by 
bribing the road surveyor, he had obtained a good report of 
his performance. 

Between Ming-Shan- Hsien and Ya-Chou, the country 
was more broken, the smaller ridges giving way to detached 
hills of red clayey sandstone, all still well cultivated and 
wooded. 

We followed a little stream through a miniature gorge, 
and, ascending a branch, gained a saddle four hundred feet 
above the plain, whence we had a fine view of the Ya-Chou 
valley. This is about two miles wide, is quite flat, and 
bounded on each side by mountains from eight hundred to 
fifteen hundred feet high. The river bed is about two 
* Pat means a hundred. Ch.ing is a measure of ten Chinese ittX, 



VIII. CAKE'TEA. 159 

hundred yards wide, though at this season the water is not 
more than forty or fifty yards across. The stream ran at the 
rate of about four miles an hour, and was now very shallow. 
A little lower down, the valley closes in on the left bank, 
and steep red hills, clothed with deep green foliage, hang 
over the water, forming little cliffs, and making a very pretty 
picture. We ascended the river about three miles, and 
crossed it in a ferry, just below the city of Ya-Chou-Fu, 
where we found a particularly nice inn with an open court 
in front. 

In front of some of the houses, before reaching Ya-Chou, 
we saw a few vines, trailing over a trellis-wqfk above the 
road. There was also some tea put out to dry, of which a 
little grows here. At Ming-Shan-Hsien some very celebrated 
tea is grown, but only in small quantities. 

Ya-Chou is a place of great importance, as it is the 
starting-point of all the commerce to Tibet, to which place 
tea and cotton are the chief exports. 

The most remarkable trade of this place is its commerce 
in tea, vast quantities of which are sent from here through 
Tibet, and up to the very gates of our own tea-gardens in 
India. The tea for the Tibetans is merely the sweepings 
that would elsewhere be thrown away, the poor Chinese in 
Ya-Chou paying seven or eight times the cost of this for 
what they drink themselves. It is pressed into cakes about 
4 feet long x i foot x 4 inches, each of which is wrapped in 
straw, is called a pau^ and weighs 24 lbs. The average load 
for a coolie is about ten or eleven of these packets. I have 
seen some carrying eighteen— that is 432 lbs. Little boys 
are constantly seen with five or six pan — 120 lbs. These 
men wear a sort of framework on their backs, which, if the 
load is bulky, often comes right over the head, and forms in 
rainy weather a protection from the wet Each of them 
carries a thing like the handle of a spud, with an iron shoe 
and point at the end, and when they rest themselves the 
handle is put under the load, the point into the ground, and 
thus they relieve their backs from the weight. A coolie gets 
1*8 tael to carry six pau (144 lbs.) from Ya-Chou to Ta- 
Chien-Lu, 150 miles over an exceedingly mountainous 



I 60 THE GREA T MINISTERS RANGE. . CH. 

country — a distance usually accomplished in twenty days. 
The pay would seem barely enough to keep life in them 
under their tremendous loads. They eat scarcely anything 
but Indian-corn bread, made up into round cakes nearly an 
inch thick, and from six to ten inches in diameter. 

Beyond Ya-Chou we left the main river at once, and, 
crossing a little ridge, entered the valley of a tributary, ascend- 
ing which we gained Yung-Ching-Hsien on the i6th. As we 
marched through the town early next morning, the shops were 
just opening, and I was not very favourably impressed with 
the place ; but I had perhaps been spoiled by the very fine 
cities in the t^h'eng-Tu plain, for certainly even these towns 
of Western Ssu-Ch'uan would compare favourably with those 
in the north of China. The streets are wide and fairly paved, 
though there are a great many round stones used, which are 
equally disagreeable for man and beast. The unfavourable 
impressions are also partly owing to the abominably shabby 
state of the houses, which never seem to be painted, white- 
washed, or repaired. All the woodwork is black with dirt, 
the paint is rubbed off, and everything looks dreadfully 
dilapidated. This is most apparent before the shutters are 
removed, for the fronts are quite open, and in the day all 
the inhabitants of the town collect in the main street, and in 
a measure conceal the imperfections ; but in the morning, 
when the greasy shutters close the fronts, and there are only 
a few sleepy coolies about, or an early pieman selling his hot 
cakes, all the dirt is seen in its full glory. 

We met a long train of mules bringing opium from Yiin- 
Nan, and others carrying brass. There was a man with a 
cargo of parrots, which, he said, came from the mountains 
in the interior ; but he did not know much about it, as he 
did not get them himself. We afterwards found the home 
of these birds in the neighbourhood of the Chin-Sha-Chiang, 
south of Bat'ang. 

About six miles from Yung-Ching we left the main river, 
and ascended a tributary up a very pretty valley bounded by 
sandstone hills. The red sandstone formation presented a 
remarkable contrast to the limestone of the valley of Sung- 
P'an-T'ing. The limestone is always broken into sharp 



VIII. TERRORS OF THE HILLS. i6i 

crags and pinnacles, leaving tremendous precipices. The 
streams find their way through long and gloomy gorges, 
sometimes winding for miles between perpendicular walls of 
rock, scarcely broken by a chasm. 

Gradually the mountains began to close around us, and 
the amount of cultivation seemed to decrease with every 
step in advance, until the limit of the Indian corn and 
bamboo was passed at 4,132 feet above the sea. Between 
that point and the summit of the T'ai-Hsiang-Ling-Kuan, 
or the Pass of the Great Minister's Range, there was, with 
the exception of one tiny patch, absolutely no cultivation, 
the hill-sides being clothed with a rich and brilliant green 
foliage of trees and undergrowth, which completely obscured 
the red colour of the granite, of which the whole of the 
mountains here are formed. 

Quitting the river, we ascended a tributary for a short 
distance, and then, crossing a little spur, a descent of 
fifty feet brought us back to the main stream. The road 
over this spur is closed by a gate called Hsiao-Kuan (Little 
Pass), and the village at the foot of it bears the same name. 

Whilst sitting at breakfast Chin-Tai came in with a sad 
look about his face, and after a cough that was the invari- 
able prelude to a miraculous narrative he began : — 

* The road goes over a very big Shan.' (He never 
succeeded in learning the English word * mountain.') 

* Yes,' I said ; ' so I understand.' 

After a moment's pause he continued, *We must not 
make much talk on the big Shan.' 

' Indeed,' I said ; * I suppose a great wind would come if 
we did.' 

* Yes,' he answered ; * there was once a big military 
official who ' 

* Ah,' I interrupted, ' he was advised not to go up with 
his army ? ' 

* Yes ; all the people tell him that ' 

* That is enough,' I said, * I have heard the story before ; * 
and as these mountains seem to have been so fatal to 

* Page 131, at F6ng-Tupg-Kuan. 

M 



i62 STRAW-SANDAL FLAT, CH. 

military oflficials, you had better go and knock your head 
that you are but a humble civilian/ 

Beyond the Little Pass, the road followed the valley, and 
was one of the worst I ever travelled on. Now zigzagging 
up the side of a mountain, the path was cut in steep steps 
over sharp pointed rocks ; and now winding along the side of 
a gully, some stream was crossed by a ford or a bridge. 
Everywhere the wooded hills rose above us some one 
thousand or two thousand feet, very steep but never pre- 
cipitous. Sometimes we were down at the level of the 
stream, at others far above it, but the steady ascent always 
continued. After a time, again leaving the main valley, we 
ascended a steep spur by a long zigzag, and reached its 
crest at Ta-Kuan (Great Pass), 5,754 feet above the sea- 
Near here we passed an unfortunate pony that had fallen down 
under its load, and was left to die by the roadside. I wanted 
to shoot it and put it out of its misery, but was told that 
its owner would be sure to come up and accuse me of 
having killed a fine and healthy animal. After this the 
road again rejoined the river without descending appre- 
ciably, and another long pull of four thousand feet brought 
us to the summit of the T'ai-Hsiang-Ling-Kuan, 9,366 feet 
above the sea. 

Directly we crossed this, the landscape changed entirely, 
the mountain-sides being all green grassy slopes, very little 
cut up by valleys, and not so steep as those on the other 
side. There was no wood, no cultivation, and little under- 
growth, but the ground was covered with beautiful rich grass 
and many wild flowers. 

The rain had been falling on the eastern slope, which, 
from the luxuriance of the foliage, appears to possess a 
much damper cHmate than the western face ; but as the 
ridge arrested the clouds, we were now in tolerably fine 
weather, and from the little tea-house close to the summit 
we could see the city of Ch'ing-Ch'i at the foot of a steep 
spur 3,888 feet below. This tea-house rejoiced in the name 
of Ts'ao-Hsieh-P'ing (Straw-Sandal Flat), and was doubtless 
so called on account of the numerous straw sandals expended 
in the passage of this terrible mountain. 



VIII. CH'ING-CH'LHSIEN, 163 

Another wearisome zigzag led us down a very steep spur. 
On the way, the first cultivation was a patch of tobacco, and 
a little lower, the familiar fields of Indian corn and beans 
again covered the hill-sides. 

Ch'ing-Ch'i seemed a wretchedly poor place ; when we 
started there was no one in the streets, the shops were all 
shut, and the city generally bore a miserable aspect. I have 
a very vague idea of the day's march, for everything was 
shrouded in mist and fog. This is amply compensated for 
by the remarkably vivid impressions retained of the road. 
In many places there was no road at all — we had to cross 
ravines, where the torrents, swollen by the rain, had alto- 
gether carried away the goat-track that did duty for a path, 
and sometimes in these narrow gullies it was almost impos- 
sible to get the chairs round the sharp corners. The soil . 
was a soft sticky clay \ the chairs were continually bumped 
about by projecting rocks ; the coolies stumbled, the rain 
fell, and altogether it was anything but a lively performance, 
as may be gathered from the fact that we were six hours 
covering the nine miles to Fu-Hsing-Ch'ang. 

On leaving Ch'ing-Ch'i we descended to a stream, crossed 
it, and ascended the hills bounding it on the other side, until 
we gained the crest of a ridge that separated it from another 
valley. From this point the main road to the province of 
Yiin-Nan leads to the south-west. We left it on our left, 
and, crossing the ridge, followed up the stream to Fu- 
Hsing-Ch'ang. 

On this road we continually passed long trains of coolies, 
carrying tea on their backs, climbing mournfully and with 
measured tread the desperate and staircase-like tracks. 
There was something very sad in the aspect of these men — 
they seemed more like beasts of burden than human beings ; 
they never smiled, and scarcely ever said a word ; and as 
our lively Ssu-Ch'uan coolies, ever ready with some banter 
passed them, they would stand on one side, with rigid 
countenances that scarcely relaxed into an expression of 
wonder as the two strange foreigners came by. These 
coolies, who do the chief part of the mountain transport, 
are quite a different class to the comparatively well-paid 

M 2 



1 64 BRIDGE SWEPT AWAY, CH. 

coolies of the plains ; they cany the tea as far as Ta-Chien- 
Lu, beyond which point that extraordinary and hardy animal 
the yak is almost solely employed. 

The people had told us that there were no more regular 
mountain passes before reaching Ta-Chien-Lu ; but mile 
after mile we ascended, in continual showers of heavy rain. 
The road was broken into rocky steps, sometimes so steep 
that it seemed as if neither ponies nor coolies could possibly 
mount, and sometimes so slippery that I was quite unable to 
walk in European boots, nothing but the straw sandals that 
the coolies wear giving any hold on these steep paths. At 
last, after a long clamber up many a weary zigzag, through a 
dank mist that shrouded everything from view, we gained 
the summit of the pass called sometimes Wu-Yai-Ling 
(which means the Range without a Fork) and sometimes 
Fei-Yueh-Ling (Fly beyond Range) ^ 9,022 feet above the 
sea. From here, as the clouds lifted for a few minutes, 
there was a fine view in both directions. The valley on 
the northern side was rather more open, and the hills 
less steep, and we descended about a couple of thousand 
feet to the town of Hua-Ling-P'ing, perched, among many 
walnut and other trees, on a little plateau about five hundred 
feet above the stream, where there was a small but very 
comfortable inn. 

The last shower fell as we left the town on the 22nd of 
July, the day cleared up, and in the valleys the damp heat was 
again almost oppressive after the chilly air of the mountain- 
tops. We descended the stream until some people met us with 
the pleasing intelligence that the bridge by which we ought 
to cross had been washed away in the morning, and that we 
should probably have to wait until it should please the river 
to subside. We went to look for the remains of the bridge, 
but there were absolutely none to see, and the muddy torrent, 
roaring and foaming over huge rocks and stones, was 
evidently quite impassable. Our guides and the inhabitants 
of the place, with one consent, now tried to frighten us, and 
assured us that there was no road ; but, not heeding them, 

* Correctly, I believe, Ling is the pass, or col^ not the range, — Y. 



VIII. IRON SUSPENSION-BRIDGE. 165 

we found a track through a field of Indian corn, which, 
leading above a little cliff that bounded the stream, led us 
down to a village, whence the road was very fair to the 
junction of this stream with the river of Ta-Chien-Lu. 

At Lu-Ting-Ch'iao, which we reach on the 23rd, the 
river is crossed by an iron chain suspension-bridge, of one 
hundred yards span. The roadway is laid on nine iron 
chains, and there are two other chains at each side for hand- 
rails ; the links are of seven-eighth-inch-round iron, and are 
about ten inches long, but those underneath are much eaten 
away by rust. The roadway consists of planks laid across, 
which were originally lashed to the chains ; but all the 
lashings were now adrift, and the planks quite loose, with 
wide gaps between them. There is a deep pit at each end 
of the bridge, into which the chains are brought, and where, 
if they get slack, they can be tautened up with powerful 
windlasses. I crossed with a good many people, and there 
was very little vibration ; but Mesny, during the afternoon, 
walked over by himself, and found it swayed about a good 
deal. 

On arrival at the bridge I was directed to cross it ; I 
dismounted, and walked across to examine the structure, 
and pace its length, and I did not take much notice of what 
my people were doing with the ponies. These animals were 
rather frightened at the loose planks ; but the men, instead 
of letting them go slowly and put their heads down to see 
what they were doing, dragged at the bridles, and attempted 
to pull them over by main force. The poor brutes, in con- 
sequence, could not see where to put their feet, one false 
step was made, both the animals started, and in a moment 
all their eight legs were in the openings between the planks. 
By the aid of a number of coolies, however, they were Hfted 
up bodily from their perilous position, and reached the other 
side more frightened than hurt. 

There was an archway at the end of the bridge which 
seemed to be the principal seat of trade as well as of amuse- 
ment ; for here there was a large party of coolies playing 
dominoes, with pieces not very different from those used in 
Europe. 



1 66 CHARACTER OF NATIVES, CH. 

After having crossed and waited about some time search- 
ing for the inn, we found that our men had taken up our 
quarters at the other side ; so, leaving the ponies here, we 
recrossed to the left bank of the stream, where we found a 
delightful inn, large and comfortable, with two good bed- 
rooms, besides the sitting-room ; but of course with the in- 
variable bad smells from piggeries and other foulness. There 
was an upper story also, and for the first time in China I 
heard people walking about overhead. 

The people here took very little notice of us ; as they 
are accustomed to the constant presence of Tibetans, and, 
as all foreigners (including these) are classed together, we 
did not attract much attention. But the dog was still an 
object of much curiosity, and a good many people came 
about on his account. Chin-Tai, finding access to our room 
incommoded by the people, told a man rather sharply to get 
out of the way, and not come staring at us ; to which the 
man replied, not exactly * a cat may look at a king,' but 
something very like it, for he said that he might look at the 
Emperor of China, and he supposed that an Englishman 
was not better than that. Whereupon high words ensued, 
and something like a fight, and Chung-Erh came in, breath- 
less with rage and excitement, with no other purpose whatever 
than to tell me that he had made up his mind to kill one of 
the men of Ssii-Ch'uan before he left their country. 

Both my boys had taken a violent dislike to the people 
of this province, chiefly because on one occasion when 
Chin-Tai had bargained for a fowl for a hundred and 
twenty cash, and had been obliged to go and fetch the 
money, he had been told on his return that the price was 
a hundred and thirty. This rankled in his bosom ever after, 
and now neither he nor Chung-Erh missed any opportunity 
of abusing these people. 

Airing ourselves at the inn door, we entered into con- 
versation with a man, who told us that the bridge was three 
hundred Chinese feet long, and had thirteen chains. On 
inquiring the reason of this gratuitous information, we were 
told that our reputation for asking questions had preceded 
us, and that the bridge had been measured for the first 



VIII. PEAKS AND PRECIPICES. 167 

time within the memory of man expressly for our gratifica- 
tion. 

The road from Lu-Ting-Ch'iao ran along the side of a 
mountain on the right bank of the river, keeping generally 
about five hundred feet above it, but descending once or 
twice to reach a village or cross a torrent. The river valley 
now closed in, the hill-sides became more steep, and the 
cultivation almost entirely disappeared ; but in the bottoms 
of the valleys there were still some tiny plots of rice, the 
last we saw for many a long and weary day. The little 
agriculture carried on on the slopes produced as usual 
chiefly Indian corn and beans, with small quantities of pearl 
barley. 

Beyond Hsiao-Feng-Pa the river ran between precipitous 
mountains, with here and there wild bare slopes running 
down sharply to the stream ; the road was not very good, in 
some places ascending long and steep inclines or steps, and 
at others rounding a bluff at an angle rather too sharp to be 
easy for a chair. Seven miles beyond Hsiao-P'eng-Pa the 
road crossed a torrent by a covered wooden bridge, and an 
icy breath that suddenly saluted me made me look up the 
narrow gorge, and between the clouds that rolled up the 
mountain-sides some snow was visible lying on a peak at no 
great distance. 

Wa-Ssii-Kou, where we slept, is situated at the junction 
of the stream that comes from Ta-Chien-Lu with the main 
river. Both streams here flow through narrow gorges, and 
at their junction there hardly looks as if there was room to 
pitch a tent ; but the Chinese do not mind being crowded, 
and have managed to find place for the few houses that make 
the village. 

The valley, for the first ten miles beyond Wa-Ssii-Kou, 
is closed in by steep hills, whose rugged sides have been rent 
by the rigours of the climate, and torn into cliffs and preci- 
pices, that overhang the roaring stream. As Ta-Chien-Lu 
is approached the valley is more open, but the ground and 
river-bed are everj^where strewn with great boulders, and the 
water leaps down in a succession of falls over huge masses 
of rock. At this time the rains had filled it, and it thundered 



i68 ARRIVAL AT TA-CHIEN-LU. CH. viii. 

down a mass of foam, falling nearly three thousand feet in 
the twenty miles from Ta-Chien-Lu. The road is in har- 
mony with its savage surroundings, but in three or four 
places there are remains of what appears to have been a fine 
ancient road, fifteen feet wide, evenly paved, and on whfich 
all the gradients were easy. 

At Ta-Chien-Lu, the end of the first stage in our journey, 
Bishop Chauveau received us with every expression of 
cordiality and friendship, and we spent a delightful half-hour 
before seeking our lodging. 




CHAPTER IX. 



TorChien-Lu—Naiisi Kinff—Indiaa Rupees Currtnt—The Place and 
People — ' Om Maiti Pimi Horn I ' — A House found for us — Tie Loial 
Covitnmenl — Transport Arrangements — The Lamas and the Dalai 
Ijxma — The Prayer-Cylinder and the Mulliform Mani Inscriptions 
— The La'na Ambassadors — Menaces of our Fate if we entered Tibet 
— The Servants begin to Quail — Chin-Tai, his Greed and his 
Tempers — Heavy Provisioning for the Journey— Contrast of Tibetan 
and Chinese Habits— Of Tibetan Simplicity of Fare with Chinese 
Variety— Kindly Aid rendered by the late Bishop Chaitveau—The 
New Ma-Fu —Visit to a Lamasscry — Currency for the yourney— 
The Tibetan's Inseparaile Wooden Cup — Tib Uft behind-Fresh 
Stkctien efifags—Fatality af Small-fex in Tibet. 



170 INDIAN RUPEES CURRENT. CH. 

Ta-Chien-Lu may be considered as the boundary of China, 
for up to this point the people are directly governed by 
Chinese ; but beyond this there are native chiefs who, sub- 
ject to China, rule over the people. 

There is a native king here whose territory extends to 
Ho-K'ou, a few days' journey to the west. Although he 
enjoys the rank of king, he is obliged to pay an official visit 
twice a month to the Chinese chief magistrate (a Kiun- 
Liang-Fu). The king always refused to see Europeans, 
because he was afraid that the formalities of an inferior to a 
superior that are exacted from him by the Chinese officials 
would be demanded also by foreign visitors. 

It seemed very strange to us to find the Indian rupee in 
use here. The Tibetans and mountaineers of these coun- 
tries find themselves so cheated by the Chinese in their 
money dealings that they have abandoned the cumbersome 
method of making payments by weight, which lends itself so 
easily to every kind of trickery, and have adopted the rupee, 
which has now become the current coin of the country. 
There is no coin less than a rupee, and for small payments 
it is cut up into little bits, which are of course weighed by 
the careful Chinese at Ta-Chien-Lu ; but the Tibetans do 
not seem to use the scale, and roughly judge of the value of 
a piece of silver. Tea, moreover, and beads of turquoise 
are largely used as a means of payment instead of metal. 
These rupees come in thousands all through Tibet, Lassa, 
and on to the frontiers of China, where the merchants, who 
eagerly buy them up, are, by melting them down, able to 
gain a slight percentage. Only those who have gone through 
the wear}^ process of cutting up and weighing out lumps of 
silver, disputing over the scale, and asserting the quality of 
the metal, can appreciate our feelings of satisfaction at again 
being able to make purchases in coin ; and it was very 
pleasing, and somewhat flattering to our national vanity, to 
see the portrait of our Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria on 
the money we used. The rupee is the current coin as far 
as Lu-Ting-Ch'iao. Below that place the rupee may be met 
with, but does not pass current. The value of a coinage is 
thus practically demonstrated to the Chinese \ but it is pro- 



IX. THE PLACE AND PEOPLE. 171 

bably not so much their conservative instincts that prevent 
them establishing a coinage for themselves, as the know- 
ledge that a Government mint would only open another 
door for the cheating, bribery, and corruption that infest the 
land. 

At the time of our visit, we found it difficult to obtain a 
large number of rupees ; for the embassy that had just 
arrived from Peking, and was on its way to Lassa, had 
bought them all up ; but Monseigneur Chauveau contrived 
to find one thousand for us amongst his friends and ac- 
quaintances. 

Ta-Chien-Lu is situated in a small open valley at the 
foot of mountains enclosing it on all sides except to the east, 
and is surrounded by a wall in a poor state of repair. The 
brawling stream which divides the city into two parts is 
crossed by a wooden bridge, and a good many trees grow 
about the banks. The streets of the place are narrow and 
dirty, the shops inferior, and in them are all sorts of strange 
wild figures — some dressed in a coarse kind of serge or 
cotton stuff, and wearing high leathern boots, with matted 
hair or long locks falling over their shoulders ; others in 
greasy skin coats, and the Lamas in red, their heads closely 
shaved, twisting their prayer-cylinders, and muttering at 
the same time the universal prayer, * Om Ma-ni Pe-mi 
Horn.' 

Both the women and the men wear great quantities of 
gold and silver ornaments, heavy earrings and brooches, in 
which are great lumps of very rubbishy turquoise and coral. 
They wear round their necks charm-boxes — some of gold, 
others with very delicate filigree-work in silver. These 
are to contain prayers. Some of the women are good- 
looking, and all are utterly unlike the Chinese in every 
way. 

For lodging we engaged, not without some difficulty, two 
fair rooms, and one very small one, all on the upper floor. 
The stairs were outside, and led to a verandah that ran along 
the front of the house ; there was a small courtyard below 
enclosed by a high wall, in which there were several sheds 
and tumble-down buildings. 



172 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT, CH. 

Ta-Chien-Lu is under the jurisdiction of a Chinese 
Prefect, who has the further title of Kiun-Liang-Fu (Com- 
missary), because he is in charge of the provisioning of the 
soldiers in the district. The name of the official who held 
this position at the time of our visit was Pao. 

The chief military officer had command of three hundred 
soldiers quartered in the city. A land-tax is imposed on the 
occupants of the soil, who are obliged to bring a certain 
quantity of grain to the Kiun-Liang-Fu, by whom it is 
distributed to the soldiers in his district. His income is 
derived principally from presents or bribes, according to the 
almost universal system in China ; and the position is a very 
remunerative one. 

The Kiun-Liang-Fu collects his taxes and imposes his 
corvees through the native king ; the latter are chiefly the 
supply of food and transport for travelling officials. 

The transport is often a very serious matter, and is usually 
called the Fu-Ma (men and horses). On this high road to 
Tibet, officials are continually passing, and embassies with- 
out number. All of them are provided with Fu-Ma ; and, 
as no payment is exacted, it becomes a very serious tax 
upon the people of this poverty-stricken land. 

It was very difficult to make it understood that we 
intended to pay our Fu-Ma ; hence there was, at first, great 
unwiUingness on the part of the mule and pony owners to 
let us have animals, and we were considerably delayed in 
consequence. We obtained them eventually through the 
steward of the native king, who collected them from the 
petty farmers or mule owners in the neighbourhood Nearly 
all the trade of the place is done on yaks, hence there are no 
forwarding houses where, as in Peking, large numbers of 
mules are kept, or where, as in Lower Sstt-Ch'uan, coolies 
may be hired. Beyond Ta-Chien-Lu, instead of hiring our 
own animals without official assistance, we were obliged to 
apply to the magistrates for the regulation Fu-Ma. This 
was always an annoyance ; the people of course thought 
that, like others, we should not pay them, and naturally dis- 
liked lending their animals for long and arduous journeys 
to foreigners for whom they cared nothing. 



IX. THE LAMAS, 173 

Everybody here, from the Kiun-Liang-Fu to the lowest 
coolie in the streets, believed that we were on our way to 
Lassa ; and it was simply impossible to convince them of 
the truth of our assertions that we were going to Ta-Li-Fu. 
The Chinese officials professed their willingness to assist us, 
but at the same time asserted their inability to protect us 
against the avowed hostility of the Lamas of Tibet Properly 
speaking, the Lamas are the priests of the Buddhist religion ; 
but the Chinese, always very loose in their nomenclature, 
apply the term somewhat indiscriminately to laymen who 
profess the strict tenets of the Buddhist faith. The Lamas 
throughout Tibet wield a power that is as tyrannical as it is 
absolute ; huge communities live together in the Lamasseries 
or monasteries, and it is said that they form one-third of the 
whole population of Tibet. 

The head of the Buddhist faith is the Dalai Lama, resi- 
dent at Lassa ; and he is supposed to be an incarnation of a 
divine being. When the Dalai Lama dies, the true beHevers 
in the Buddhist faith consider that his spirit has entered into 
the body of a young child. Search is then made over the 
whole empire for a child, who is recognised by certain 
mysterious marks, the secrets of which are known to the 
Lamas. There seems to be very little doubt that this search 
is honestly carried out, the Dalai Lama often being chosen 
from the house of a peasant. The Dalai Lama who was 
living when Hue was at Lassa was selected from a poor 
family resident at Ta-Chien-Lu. Those who have seen a 
Dalai Lama speak in raptures of the singular beauty of his 
countenance, and in all probability he is chosen in accord- 
ance with the laws of physiognomy, so that a mild and con- 
templative disposition is found in the head of the Buddhist 
feith. This is well for the Lamas, for if a man of energy, 
with ideas of reform, should ever succeed to this extra- 
ordinary position, their power would probably receive a blow 
from which it might never recover. 

The Lamas shave their heads, are filthy m their person, 
and their dress is poor. They wear a garment of a coarse 
red serge or sackcloth. This has no shape, but is simply an 
oblong piece of cloth thrown over one shoulder, the other 



1 74 PRA YER-CYLINDERS, CH. 

being generally bare ; for the llamas, not less hardy than 
their lay brethren, seem absolutely impermeable to cold 
They wear another length of cloth wound two or three times 
round the w^aist, which forms a skirt reaching to the ankle. 
Many of them are barefooted, others wear high boots 
of red cloth, with the lower parts made of leather. A 
yellow scarf is sometimes worn round the w^aist, and, with 
a string of beads and a prayer-cylinder, completes their 
costume. 

The prayer-cylinder, or prayer-wheel, as it is often most 
inappropriately called, is usually about three or four inches 
in diameter and in length ; the mystical invocation, * Om 
Ma-ni Pe-mi Hom,' is written on the outside, whilst a small 
weight at the end of a short string keeps the affair in rota- 
tion ; and all day long, not only the Lamas, but the people 
may be seen muttering the universal prayer, and twisting 
their cylinders, invariably in the same direction with the 
hands of a clock. One or more great cylinders, inscribed 
with the sentence, stand at the entrance to every house in 
Tibet, and a member of the household, or a guest who 
passes, is always expected to give the cylinder a twist for the 
welfare of the estabhshment. At almost every rivulet the 
eye is arrested by a little building, that is at first mistaken 
for a water-mill, but which on close inspection is found to 
contain a cylinder, turning by the force of the stream, and 
ceaselessly sending up pious ejaculations to Heaven, for 
every turn of a cylinder on which the prayer is written is 
supposed to convey an invocation to the deity. Sometimes 
enormous barns are filled with these cylinders gorgeously 
painted, and with the prayer repeated on them many times ; 
and at every turn and every step in Tibet this sentence 
is forced upon the traveller's notice in some form or 
another. 

A string, called a Mani string, is often stretched between 
the two sides of a tiny valley, and hundreds of Httle bits of 
rag are tied to it with the prayer written on all. At the top 
of every mountain there is a cairn made of stones cast there 
by the pious, thankful to have escaped the dangers of the 
mountain roads, and on each stone the prayer appears. 



IX. MANI INSCRIPTIONS. 175 

Man> sticks are planted in the cairn with a piece of rag or 
cloth at the upper end on which of course the prayer is 
written and bj the roadside are heaps of flat stones with 
the inscription roughly cut on them These are especially 
frequent m the valle)S sometimes only a few hundred 
)ards apart they would appear to serve as a means for 
marking the road when coiered by deep snow-drifts, as well 
as for some pious purpose bometimes the road passes 
between walls of flat stones on every one of which the 
sentence maj he read by the passing traveller. A light pole, 
trom w hich a piece of ng flutters inscribed with the prayer, 




IS placed at the top of every Tibetan house ; and wherever 
a traveller may go he is constantly reminded that he is in 
the home of the Buddhist religion. 

There must be some deep meaning attaching to a torn 
piece of cloth. The same idea is seen in Persia, where, at 
the summit of the mountain from which the pilgrim's eye 
first lights on the sacred shrine of the Imam Reza, the 
bushes are covered with hundreds and thousands of little 
pieces of cloth, which each devout pilgrim leaves as a me- 
mento of the blissful n 



176 THE SERVANTS BEGIN TO QUAIL. CH. 

The Lamas in Tibet wield a power unequalled by a 
similar class of people in any other country, and every 
position of importance outside Lassa seems to be filled by a 
member of this strange community. There is a Lama at the 
head of every embassy ; and the Chinese always insist on 
a very high Lama from Lassa residing at Pek,ing ; this is 
partly as a hostage for the safety of the Chinese officials 
resident at Lassa. 

Those of the Lama ambassadors whom we saw seemed 
woefully poor ; they always had something to sell, and were 
ready to dispose of any article of clothing, equipment, or 
adornment, except the prayer-cylinders, which were very 
difficult to buy. It is said that in Peking the ambassadors 
part with nearly everything, and no doubt a rare collection 
of curios from Lassa might be made in that wonderful 
city. 

The Chinese officials resident in Tibet are not permitted 
to take wives with them, the ambassador resident at Lassa 
being no exception to the rule. The officials and soldiers, 
therefore, when in Tibet take to themselves Tibetan wives. 
The children thus become entirely Tibetan ; and when the 
Chinese officials return to China they usually leave their 
family behind them. The Tibetans in this are wise in their 
own generation, for if they permitted the Chinese to bring 
their wives with them, and raise Chinese families, the 
country would soon become altogether Chinese. 

The Lamas made no secret of their intentions to oppose 
our entry into Tibet. They had already given orders that if 
we attempted it we were to be starved out ; all the people 
were forbidden to supply us with food for ourselves or with 
forage for our horses, or to assist us in any way. We did 
not ourselves hear very much of this, but of course all sorts 
of idle tales were spread about the place, and our servants, 
always willing to gossip, lent a ready ear to every silly rumour. 
These were very rife ; and, if absolute threats were not thrown 
out, hints were not wanting that neither our own lives nor 
those of our servants would be safe in Tibet. Menaces of 
this sort would under no circumstances have met with much 
attention from us, and, as we had no intention of crossing 



IX. CHIN-TAPS AVARICE. 177 

the Tibetan frontier they had no effect whatever on our peace 
of mind. 

Mesny's boy was the first to quail before the prospects of 
fatigue, not by any means imaginary, and still more before 
the idea of terrible dangers, altogether visionary ; he wanted 
to go home, but being a poor feeble thing was terrified a 
the idea of returning by himself, and persuaded my mar. 
Huang-Fu that he would never get back alive if he ventured 
beyond Ta-Chien-Lu. Huang-Fu then made up his mind 
to desert, and Chin-Tai also became faint-hearted, or said 
so, which came to the same thing \ but, probably, although 
he was by no means a courageous person, his discontent 
was chiefly caused by the addition to our party of Peh-ma, 
a Tibetan whom I had engaged as my interpreter, and 
who would have the management of all money mat- 
ters. This did not suit Chin-Tai, who every day became 
more greedy of gain, and his avaricious propensities were 
carried to such an extent that if I ever employed any one 
else in the smallest money transaction, the loss of the squeeze, 
which he now seemed to consider as his sole and absolute 
right, so stirred his bile that he was in an ill temper for the 
rest of the day. It was very soon evident that no love would 
be lost between Peh-ma and my servants ; they had already 
begun to quarrel, and one day Chung-Erh,* in a violent 
passion, went out and abused Peh-ma in the language of 
Shimei the son of Gera. ' Who pays you to curse me ? ' 
said Peh-ma, who was a heavy powerful man. What the 
result would have been, if our attention had not been at- 
tracted, it is impossible to say, for the Tibetans are a very 
independent people, and will not brook insults from any one, 
high or low. 

We were told that the journey to Bat'ang would occupy 
eighteen days ; that the intervening country was little better 
than a desert, the higher portions of which were covered 
with wide fields of snow ; and that until our arrival at Bat'ang 
it would be quite impossible to buy food of any description. 
In accordance with these gloomy prospects, Chin-Tai was 
soon in his glory laying in an amount of provisions that would 
have sufficed to stock a troopship. He at once bought one 

N 



1 78 HE A VY PRO VI SIGNING. CH. 

hundred pounds of beef, which he salted, and butter in 
quantities that would have puzzled a Laplander, or even a 
Tibetan — and the amount that a Tibetan will eat is start- 
ling ! The chief food of a Tibetan is tsanha^ or oatmeal 
porridge, generally mixed with a large proportion of butter ; 
and buttered tea — that is, tea with enormous lumps of 
butter in it. In their food, as in all their ways and customs, 
and even in their buildings, the Chinese are in striking 
contrast to the pastoral people found on their frontiers. In 
the habits of these there always remains a trace, and often 
something more. than a trace, of the nomad Hfe ; whilst in 
China proper, and amongst the Chinese, everything betokens 
the ancient and high civilisation of a people that have taken 
root in the soil. 

In every city and almost every village in China inns are 
found, an indication of a people accustomed to live in houses, 
and who, when obliged to travel, must have a roof to shelter 
them ; the very coolies, poorly as they are paid, never 
sleeping in the open, but invariably expending some portion 
of their small earnings for night accommodation. Amongst 
the Tibetans, and the Man-Tzii, or barbarian population in 
the mountains, this is not the case ; the people all originally 
leading a wandering life, the idea of inn accommodation 
has not penetrated into their habits. A Chinaman will 
under no circumstances sleep outside if he can help it ; in 
Tibet the master of a good house will as often as not be 
found passing his night on the flat roof ; whilst' the hardy 
people in the winter-time can sleep with their clothes half 
off*, and with their bare shoulders in the snow. In China 
no house is complete without its table, chairs, and bedsteads, 
rough and clumsy though they often are ; in Tibet these 
accessories of life in a fixed habitation are always wanting. 
Amongst the Chinese, mutton can rarely be obtained at all 
— they themselves think it very poor food ; the love of a 
Mongol for a fat-tailed sheep is proverbial, and the natives 
of Tibet are not behind them in this taste. Although not 
exactly forbidden by their reHgion,.the idea of kiUing an ox 
is very repugnant to the agriculturists of China, because, 
they say, it is ungrateftil to take the life of the useful animal 



IX. TIBETAN AND CHINESE HABITS. 179 

that draws the plough, and in the large towns the butchers 
are nearly always Tartars. The Chinese, as they never 
were a pastoral people, never kept flocks and herds ; milk 
and butter are therefore practically unknown to them ; while 
Tibet may safely be called a land flowing with milk and 
butter. As a rule, the Tibetan does not drink much milk : 
partly because it is all made into butter, and partly because, 
owing to the filthy state of the vessels, milk always turns 
bad in a few hours ; but the traveller who makes his tastes 
known can always obtain an unlimited supply. Tea is 
often brought to him made altogether of milk, without any 
water at all. The Tibetans also eat sour cream, curds, and 
cheese ; and this brings a Tibetan bill of fare to an end, 
which, in its constituents and in its simplicity, bears the 
stamp of the nomad pastoral race. 

I had already found it very inconvenient to carry about 
the enormous bulk of silver that I had with me, and as very 
pure gold comes from Lifang to Ta-Chien-Lu, Monseigneur 
Chauveau, who lost no opportunity of assisting me in all 
my troublesome transactions, found a trustworthy merchant, 
from whom I bought a considerable amount. It is cast 
into ingots about three inches long, and, instead of the 
uncouth lumps of silver, it was quite a pleasure to handle 
these dainty morsels of pure and glittering gold. I could 
not help reproaching myself for the trouble that Monseigneur 
Chauveau took to supply the wants of an utter stranger, for 
I felt that I should never have an opportunity of repaying 
any part of it ; but I little thought that in less than a year 
this noble-hearted missionary would be no more. 

A man came in to visit us one day, and, after many pre- 
Hminary inanities, remarked that he had a son ; as he seemed 
unable to get any further in his narrative, we warmly con- 
gratulated him upon his fortunate possession. Thus en- 
couraged, he observed that the youth would be invaluable 
to us in any capacity in which we might employ him, and 
at once introduced a boy of remarkable, though unprepossess- 
ing, appearance, dressed in a costume in no way peculiar, 
except for a pair of enormous English sea-boots. We de- 
clined his services ; but as I went oiit for a stroll a short 

N 2 



i8o TA-CHIEN'LU. CH, 

time afterwards, Boots followed me, and arriving at a temple 
he insisted on acting as cicerone. On my return I told 
Chung- Erh to give him a few cash, and asked where he had 
found those boots. It appeared that they were relics of 
poor Cooper. The boy was very proud of them, believing 
that when he had them on the spirit of an Englishman had 
entered into him, and that he was treated with distinction in 
consequence. 

The boy was not easily rebuffed ; and Mesny being, in 
possession of a pony that Pao had given him. Ting Ko (for 
such was his name) constituted himself Ma-Fu. 

Monseigneur Chauveau, never at a loss for some fresh 
method of obliging us, had been at infinite trouble to find 
two trustworthy Ma-Fus from amongst his flock ; and in 
the course of the day two men came to be engaged They 
presented a strong contrast to one another in appearance. 
One of them, named Shuang-Pao (Double Gem), a silent 
and grave man, scarcely ever said a word. The other, 
Chang-Shou-Pao (Long- lived Gem) was always laughing, 
whistling, or singing, and even in the most depressing cir- 
cumstances of wind and rain would trip along beside me in 
the most cheery maniTer. Shuang-Pao was a musk-hunter, 
and Chang-Shou-Pao hunted the red deer for their horns in 
velvet. 

Walking about the streets of Ta-Chien-Lu we attracted 
very little attention ; even the Chinese boys did not follow 
us, and people scarcely turned their heads to look as we 
passed, though our- costumes sometimes elicited a laugh. 
In this border- town there are so many strange wild figures 
of different kinds that one more makes Httle difference. By 
the Chinese we were all classed together as barbarians, and 
a man who turned up one day with a slight knowledge of 
the Bengali language thought we were Nepalese,^ and said 
our countrymen were the richest people in Lassa. He 
wanted Mesny to go there and establish himself as a watch 
and clock maker. This was very generous on his part, for 
he told us he had a monopoly of the business ; he acknow- 
ledged that he could do no more than oil the clocks that 
* The Chinese name for Nepal is Pi-Pon-Tzu. 



IX. YAKS. i8i 

were entrusted to him, and owned, with admirable candour, 
that he had never succeeded in making one go for more 
than a fortnight. 

There are three large Lamasseries in the neighbourhood 
of Ta-Chien-Lu and we went one day to visit one of them. 
For a mile or two we rode between stone walls almost 
entirely built of loose flat slabs, with the sacred inscription 
' Om Ma-ni Pe-mi Hom ' on each. On the way we met 
great droves of yaks, with enormous horns and heads like 
bisons, huge shaggy tails, and hair under their stomachs 
reaching to the ground. These were coming into the city 
in charge of some wild-looking, shaggy-haired fellows, with 
two or three of their large savage dogs. Yak is the Tibetan 
name for the bull, and the cow is called Jen-ma.^ Euro- 
peans apply the word yak indiscriminately to both sexes, as 
do the Chinese their word Mao-Niu (Hairy Ox). 

Ta-Chien-Lu being situated at the very edge of the 
great Himalayan plateau, one day's march to the west 
brings the traveller to the glorious pastures of this magnifi- 
cent table-land, and here the yak is naturally the almost 
universal means of transport. Very slow in his movements, 
and accomplishing but a few miles a day, this hardy animal 
is nevertheless the cheapest that can be employed. Requir- 
ing no attendance, and no food that cannot be picked up on 
the mountain-side or in the rich grass-lands of the upland 
plateau, the cost of keeping a yak is absolutely nothing. A 
caravan of yaks on the road will, when they arrive at a fine 
pasture, halt for a few days and let their animals feed ; after 
which they will perhaps travel for three or four days more in 
the wild stony mountains, with scarcely any food until they 
reach the next grazing-ground. 

We stood aside in the narrow path to let these lumbering 
beasts go past with their loads, and then proceeded up the 
valley. Steep rugged hills running down on each side, and 
great rocks strewing the ground — it was a wild, desolate 

• 

^ According to Jaeschke's dictionary the cow yak is di-mo, of which 
jen-ma is possibly a local variation. In Ladak it is pronounced also 
bri-mo. But Jaeschke gives also zhon-ma or shon-ma as 'a milch- 
cow,' which is more probably the word given to Captain Gill. — K 



i82 VISIT TO A LAMASSERY, CH. 

scene, closed at the back by snowy mountains, from which 
the clouds lifted now and then. 

Crossing the arched bridge that spans the roaring torrent, 
we met a dozen Tibetan coolies carrying a huge log, keeping 
step to a kind of chaunt, by no means unmelodious, and in 
which a sort of first and second could be distinctly recognised. 

The Lamassery is finely situated on the slope of a hill, 
and is surrounded with many trees. Outside, the walls are 
whitewashed and well kept. There is a slight batter to 
them, and, as they look very thick and massive, there would 
be something of the appearance of a fortification, if it were 
not that the windows are large, and outside many of them 
flowers were growing in pots. We entered a quadrangle, on 
the eastern side of which is the • gate. This and two other 
sides are occupied by living-rooms in two stories, and the 
fourth — that opposite the entrance — is taken up with the 
principal chapel. This was not very gorgeous. There was 
a gigantic statue of Buddha at the end. The Lamas said it 
was all of brass, but it looked like clay coated with that 
metal. On each side of this was the tomb of a very sacred 
Lama, enclosed with iron-wire netting, on which a few 
scarves of felicity, called * Khatas,' were hung. There were 
seven copper bowls of water before Buddha. We asked if any 
meaning attached to the number seven, and they replied 
that there were so many mysteries in it it was quite impos- 
sible of explanation. On each side of the chief chapel is a 
corridor leading into other rooms, into one of which they 
showed us. It was very dark, and, as far as we could gather, 
seemed to portray the horrors of hell. Outside it, hanging 
from the roof of the corridor, were skins of dogs, deer, bears, 
and other animals, roughly stuffed with straw. In many of 
these the sewing had burst and the straw protruded in a 
melancholy fashion, whilst the hair had fallen off in patches 
from all of them. Some of them were provided with glass eyes 
of awful dimensions, and they were fearful objects to look 
upon. To these also there was some mysterious meaning, but 
the Lamas would not tell us what it was. We were treated to 
a cup of tea each, and entertained by one of the chief Lamas, 
who, in his dress, did not differ from the others. 



IX. ZOOLOGY, 183 

There were some fierce black dogs in the quadrangle, 
who, when we entered, gave tongue furiously, in a deep 
baying voice. These dogs had heads something like mastiffs, 
with an overhanging upper lip ; they had shaggy tails, and 
some long hair about their head and neck. Here also a 
flock of enormous geese that were quite quiet before we 
arrived set up a loud cackling on our approach. In some 
parts of China geese are frequently kept as guards to a house, 
as they always cackle at the appearance of a stranger on 
their premises. 

Early one morning, after a stroll outside the city, as we 
were sauntering homewards, we saw a flock of sheep. 
Mesny declared he had not eaten mutton for years ; I had 
not tasted it for months, and our mouths watered at the 
sight of this unwonted food. From Ch'eng-Tu to this place 
we never had any other meat than chicken, and since our 
arrival at Ta-Chien-Lu our sole diet had been beef ; for 
fowls were not to be bought, grain being so expensive that 
few people could afford to keep them. Wonderful for China 
even eggs were scarce ; ordinarily, all over China, eggs can 
be bought in any quantity at a ridiculously low rate. Now, 
although by the aid of skilful cookery we had thrown as 
much variety as possible into our meals, yet the toujours 
boeufhdid given us a decided desire once more to taste the flesh 
of a sheep ; so, calling the coolie who was following us, we 
bade him address the gentle shepherd and demand the price 
of one of his flock, and in the mean time we sauntered home to 
breakfast. But the coolie, instead of doing as we told him, 
informed the Bishop that we wanted a sheep, and soon 
afterwards Monseigneur Chauveau sent us one of the fattest 
from his own flock. 

We were told that most of our payments between Ta- 
Chien-Lu and Bat'ang would be made in tea and beads ; so 
at Ta-Chien-Lu we bought a horse-load of the common 
inferior tea that we had seen carred by coolies all day long, 
and nearly every day, on the road from Ya-Chou ; and we 
told Peh-ma to try and get some beads. We were some- 
what astonished at the dirty-looking stones that he brought 
and said were turquoises. They were of all sizes, some as 



1 84 BUTTERED TEA, CH. 

small as No. 2 shot, others as large as No. 1 2 bullets. To 
me they looked the veriest rubbish ; but, as Peh-ma assured 
us that they would pass current as small coin, we bought 
three hundred and fifty for twenty-one taels. 

The Tibetans, both men and women, are possessed of a 
taste almost amounting to frenzy for coral and turquoises ; 
and the immense quantity of these that are used is surpris- 
ing. The scabbards of their swords, the covers of their 
charm-boxes, their earrings or bracelets, all are ornamented 
with coral and turquoises. Quantity, however, is more rer 
garded than quality, and in the whole of Tibet it would be 
difficult to find any pieces that would have any value what- 
ever in the European market. 

A sack of rice for our servants, another of wheaten 
flour, and a few dozen khatas^ or scarves of felicity, com- 
pleted the purchases that Peh-ma deemed it advisable to 
make. 

The * khata ' is a great institution in Tibet. It is a little 
scarf, of some common material, that may be any colour 
except red, but is generally white gauze. Etiquette ordains 
that every present should be accompanied by a khata, and 
pious people visiting a Lamassery generally tie one to the 
rails in the front of the image of Buddha.^ 

We were invited to breakfast one day with Monseigneur 
Chauveau, who said that he had not entertained European 
guests since the late Mr. T. T. Cooper was at Ta-Chien-Lu, 
just nine years before. The feast terminated with buttered 
tea, made with the Bishop's own butter. The butter to be 
bought at the houses in the country and in the towns 
invariably has a somewhat rancid taste, owing to the filthy 
vessels in which the milk is kept and the butter manufactured ; 
but that made in Bishop Chauveau's establishment would 
have rivalled the produce of Devonshire and Alderney, as 
indeed it should, considering the wonderful pastures on 
which, during the short summer, the animals can graze. 

In a cold climate, buttered tea, made with good tea and 
fresh butter, is not such a repulsive drink as would be 

' On the Khatay and the manifold occasions of its use, see Hue, 
Souvenirs, &c., 1850, i. 86. — K 



IX. FAREWELL TO BISHOP CHAUVEAU. 185 

supposed, and is admirably adapted for a people living at 
the great altitude of the Tibetan plateau. In the summer- 
time, when the climate is pleasant, much heat-giving food is 
not required, and the people can take their tsanba and tea 
with the least amount of butter; but when the howling 
winds of winter sweep across those dreary wastes of snow, 
they can only maintain their vital heat by large quantities of 
carbonaceous food, and butter is the most suitable of all 
that can be obtained. For animal food is most plentiful in 
the season when it is the least required ; in the winter, the 
cattle and sheep can scarcely find anything to eat, and 
become miserably lean, out of condition, and totally unfit to 
provide the fatty food necessary for the people ; while the 
butter, made in large quantities during the summer when 
the animals are at the height of their condition, is easily 
stored up for winter use. 

This shows also why so little milk is drunk by the people. 
The winter is the season of trial, and it is for that time that 
all provisions are made ; in the summer large quantities of 
milk or butter are unnecessary, and every available drop of 
milk is made into butter for the winter. In the long winter, 
again, milk must be exceedingly scarce, and thus drinking 
milk has never become one of the habits of the people. 

The afternoon in the society of Monseigneur Chauveau 
was a most pleasant one, for though he had lived thirty -two 
years in China, time had not dimmed his interest in Euro- 
pean affairs, nor his affection for his country. His courtly 
manners, those of a nobleman of the old French regime, 
were in striking contrast to the wildness of his surroundings, 
and would have made me forget that I was on the borders 
of an almost barbarous country, if his enthusiasm for 
the propagation of the faith had not kept it constantly in 
view. 

He used to speak with great affection and admiration of 
the English, and of the religious toleration experienced 
under their rule ; and he looked forward with the keen eye 
of faith to the day when, the English being established at 
Lassa, the missionaries would be able to follow, and, sweep- 
ing at last across those wild wastes of superstition, carry the 



1 86 CHARM-BOXES, CH, 

Christian faith to the very home of the Dalai Lama, shake 
the throne of that arch impostor, and strike with mighty 
strokes at the very root of the Upas-tree of Buddhism. 

* Ah/ he said, * my proper title is Vicaire Apostolique of 
Lassa ; but I call myself by the less pretentious one of Vicaire 
of Tibet, for I feel that my eye can never look over the 
border into the promised land. But,' he added, with flashing 
eye, * I feel sure that my successor will reach the goal denied 
to me.' 

Listening to him, as the colour mantled to his cheeks, I 
could not help sharing his earnest enthusiasm, and wishing 
that it might be he who should be the first to enter the haven 
so long desired. But a few short months elapsed, and he 
went to his last rest, bitterly mourned by his faithful little 
flock in those far-away regions, and deeply regretted by all 
who knew the nobility and grandeur of his nature. To me 
he was almost more than a friend. I owed him a debt of 
gratitude that nothing could have repaid, and never shall I 
forget his venerable figure as, standing at the door of his 
palace, he bade me a final adieu, and,^quoting the passage 
in which Goldsmith, who was his favourite historian, narrates 
the last speech of our unfortunate monarch Charles, said the 
one English word, * Remember ! ' 

During our stay traders came pouring in with all sorts of 
ornaments, enormous finger- rings, barbaric ear-rings, brooches 
and buckles, some of silver and some of gold, and all set 
with huge lumps of coral and turquoise. The greatest 
curiosities, and the best worth buying, were the charm- 
boxes, made of gold or silver. On the top of these there 
is generally some filligree, quite equal to any of European 
manufacture, and it is surprising how the handicraftsmen of 
Lassa, where these things are made, can, with their rough 
clumsy tools, produce work of such extreme delicacy. These 
boxes, which are invariably adorned with a lump of coral, 
are to contain a slip of paper, on which is written the usual 
formula, *0m Ma-ni Pe-mi Hom.' No Tibetan is ever 
without one of these, no matter how poor or dirty he may 
be. A miserable yak-driver, with perhaps no home, and no 
worldly possessions but a bit of serge for a coat, will invari- 



IX. THE TIBETAN'S WOODEN CUP. 187 

ably have a charm-box which may be worth some twenty or 
thirty taels. It is very curious to see the women, always 
dirty, often ragged, and sometimes almost too poor to afford 
themselves clothes, wearing massive ornaments of silver or 
gold, and immense plates of silver in their hair. I bought 
a very heavy bracelet of solid gold, embossed with some 
emblematical design, and a good many finger-rings, ear- 
rings, and charm-boxes. 

There is another article that almost forms a part of every 
Tibetan. This is the wooden cup, or Pu-ku, in which he 
eats his tsanba or drinks his tea. It is always kept in the 
bosom of his capacious garment, a space that serves not as 
a pocket merely, but rather as a portmanteau, in which he 
can carry about the whole of his not very extensive pos- 
sessions. 

These cups are made of different woods, and polished ; 
no Tibetan is ever without one ; he seems to be born, not 
with a silver spoon in his mouth, but with a wooden cup in 
his bosom. The cup never leaves him, night or day, as long 
as he lives, and would no doubt go down to the grave with 
him, if burial were the custom of the country. Some are 
supposed to have the valuable property of annulling the 
effects of poison, and others are lined with silver ; but none 
of these priceless articles were to be bought to add to our 
collection of Tibetan curiosities, and we contented our- 
selves with plain, simple, but useful cups, like those of our 
coolies. 

A prayer-cylinder also was brought, which I began to 
twist the wrong way, much to the consternation of the peo- 
ple ; they were really seriously alarmed, for they seized my 
hand and stopped me immediately. 

In the afternoon I made an agreement with eight chair- 
coolies, for whom I was obliged to provide four ponies, 
partly to carry their food, and partly to enable them to take 
an occasional ride to relieve themselves amongst the moun- 
tain roads. I took my chair to Ta-Li-Fu, chiefly because 
it was so very useful for carrying the small odds and ends 
I always wanted on the march or immediately on arrival at 
the halting-place. It would also have been invaluable in 



1 88 FRESH SELECTION OF NAGS. CH. 

case of sickness. The other chairs were taken no further 
than Ta-Chien-Lu. 

Poor Tib was also left behind ; he had supported the 
difficulties of the road very badly, and, much to the discon- 
tent of the coolies, had been carried more than half-way from 
Ch'eng-Tu in my chair. Had I taken him further he woul4 
probably have broken down altogether, if he had not been 
killed by the savage dogs of the Tibetans ; and as Monr 
seigneur Chauveau offered him a comfortable home, I 
accepted it for the poor beast, though in China the presence 
of a dog is a great safeguard against thieves. 

Later in the day a number of ponies were waiting for me, 
and, after trying a few of them, I was just going to make a 
bid for one or two, when a man came in with a grey and 
a chestnut. The grey, though small, at once attracted my 
fancy, as he had more breeding about him than any of the 
others, and the shape of his head, and the way in which his 
tail was set on, were quite of the Arab type. I had him 
saddled, and taking him over the worst bit of road I could 
find in the neighbourhood, the way he came down hill on 
the stony path at once determined me to buy him. My 
Ma-Fu had followed on the chestnut barebacked ; the saddle 
was changed, and I found that I liked the second almost 
as well as the first. On returning I asked the price of the 
two ; the horse-dealer demanded forty taels, and I promptly 
offered twenty. After a time I went up to twenty-nine, and 
the dealer coming down to thirty a bargain was struck. The 
dealers here have a curious way of telling the price to one 
another by putting their hands together under their sleeves, 
and, by signs well understood, communicating the figure 
without the bystanders knowing anything about it.* 

None of our coolies or Ma-Fus cared to engage them- 
selves to come beyond Bat'ang ; for the Tibetans have the 
greatest dread of entering China, on account of small-pox 
— a disease almost unknown in Tibet. A Tibetan once 
attacked by small-pox never recovers. The Chinese look 

< The Burmese have a similar method of bargaining, which is not, 
I believe, used exclusively for horse-dealing. It is in occasional use 
almost all over Asia. See Marco PolOj 2nd ed. ii. 486. — K. 



IX. SMALL-FOX AMONG TIBETANS, 189 

upon this disease much as an Englishman does on a cold ; 
they are generally ill for a few days only, and get over it, 
though of course there are a large number of severe and 
fatal cases. But when a Tibetan is attacked, his family take 
him outside the village, out of the way, and put him under a 
tree, or in a cave, with some tsauiba and cold water, and 
leave the poor wretch to die.^ 

* Colonel Prejevalski notices that the inhabitants of the Lob Nor 
district have very similar customs. 




CHAPTER X. 

HE GREAT PLATEAU. 



I. Ta-Ckien-Lu to Lil'ang. 
Till Departure fmm Ta-Chien-Lu — TheCavakaiUdtscribed—A Supfitr 
of Tsanba - Village of Ckeh-leh^A Wreck of the CnKkery—Tibeiiat 
Salutation — Delicious Air—Half-bred ir'ais — Splatdid AlptHi Pas- 
luret^iVild Fruils— The Saered Cairn— Ti-m— Delightful alfresto 
Breakfast— A Land of Milk and Butter-Hoi Spring— The Buttered- 
Tea Chum— Tmnha— Tibetan Housei—An-niang—WildFlon/ers 
— Roadside Group from the Fair— A Galop aver Turf—Pass ef 
Ka-fi-La — Magnificent Alpine Prospect — The ' KingofMounttUns' 
—Pine Forests — Huang-Fu— Descent towards the Ya-Lung Siver — 
Appearance of Green Parrots — Ho-JC'eu or Nia-ckuia, on the Ya- 
Lung River — Ferry over the Ya-Lung - Re-ascent 'towards th^ 



CH. X. DEPARTURE FROM TA-CHIEN-LU. 191 

Plateau — Mah-geh-chung — A * Medicine Mountain* — Crest of the 
Ra-ma Pass — Female Decorations — Lifang-Ngoloh — Description of 
House and Appliances — Domestic Sketches — Deh-re Pass- The 
Rhubarb Plant— Rarefied Atmosphere — Pass of Wang-gi— Abun- 
dance of Supplies— Shie-gi Pass — The Surong Mountaifts — Lit''ang 
in View— Arrival there. 

It was just noon as we rode away on the 7th of August 
and turned our backs on Ta-Chien-Lu. We were a goodly 
company, though somewhat quaint to look on : Peh-ma 
riding first on a light-coloured chestnut with a white tail, 
enveloped in all sorts of blankets and wraps ; Peh-ma him- 
self in a garment gathered in at the waist, where in a gigantic 
fold he seemed to be carrying all his worldly goods, and 
whence, later on, when I began to be unpleasantly sensible 
of the fact that I had not breakfasted, half a loaf was pro- 
duced. Mesny, dressed in a kind of patrol jacket, European 
trousers, Chinese high-boots, and a Kuei-Chou pancake 
hat, and mounted on a very gorgeous Chinese saddle, with 
short stirrups that drew his knees somewhere up towards 
the vicinity of his chin, would at least have attracted notice 
wherever he might have been. Huang- Fu had, by a quan- 
tity of bedding, clothing, and saddle-bags, raised the altitude 
of his small pony almost to that of an elephant ; and he 
looked the picture of contentment, as he sat perched up 
with a long pipe and a red umbrella. Chung-Erh wore a 
large straw hat over a long black coat ; and Chin-Tai, and 
Mesny's coolie (now raised to the rank of * Boy,' vice Hsi- 
Sen resigned), with one of the pony-drivers, formed our 
mounted party. But Ting-Ko (or * Boots,' as we called 
him), in the hopes of gathering up some fragments, came 
with us for one day's journey, as he said, and made himself 
generally useful. My laughing Ma-Fu, dressed all in red 
like a Lama, the other Ma-Fu, and our two spare ponies, 
completed our caravan ; while behind us the chair, with its 
eight coolies and four ponies, and the twenty-nine baggage 
animals, followed in beautiful disorder. 

Our course lay up a valley, nearly due south, past the 
Lamassery we had visited a day or two before. On each 
side hills covered with low green brushwood sloped down to 



192 A SUPPER OF TSANBA. CH. 

the river ; in the valley the fields of oats and barley, nearly 
ready for the sickle, were divided by stone walls, and a good 
many fine large trees lined the edge of the water. To the 
south, right in front, a fine snowfield on Mount Ru-ching 
glittered in the bright sun ; and to the south-east another 
mountain every now and then showed in patches of snow, as 
the clouds came and went from its lofty summit. 

At a little less than four miles from Ta-Chien-Lu, the 
road leaves the main river, and strikes to the west, up the 
valley of a smaller stream. There is but little cultivation, 
and scarcely any wood, the hill-sides being all covered with 
a dense green undergrowth. The road is good, ascending 
steadily without any of those desperately steep zigzags that 
we now looked upon as almost a necessary part of a day's 
march. 

On the w^ay we passed the house of one of the Ma-Fus. 
It was a poor shanty, standing by itself in the middle of a 
little cultivation, but it was his home ; and his wife, children, 
and dogs, all ran out to welcome him. The Ma-Fu found four 
eggs, which he brought as a respectful present, and was 
very pleased when we told him to stay for the night with 
his family. We rode on to the little village of' Cheh-toh, 
where we halted for the night, and, as there was no imme- 
diate prospect of the arrival of our baggage, we both had a 
bowl of tsanba, which we ate after the manner of the country. 
A large basin of oatmeal, two good-sized cups, a kettle of 
buttered tea, and two pairs of chopsticks were brought to 
us — these last, a Chinese innovation, never used by a Tibe- 
tan, who finds his fingers sufficient. A Tibetan first helps 
himself to what oatmeal he requires, the buttered tea is 
poured over it, he stirs it up with his fingers, adding oat- 
meal and tea to suit his taste, and then eats it. It is very 
like porridge, and, as in Scotland, the oats are grilled before 
grinding them into meal. 

The mules did not arrive till six o'clock ; and then 
Chin-Tai told me that all the plates, dishes, cups, glass, and 
crockery had been smashed. I consoled myself with the 
reflection that as the plates and dishes were of iron, there 
was a certain amount of exaggeration, and went out to see 



X. TIBETAN SALUTATIONS, 193 

the wreck. The muleteers had stopped behind us at Ta- 
Chien-Lu, to have a final drink and glorification before 
starting ; and in attempting to make up for lost time, had 
only succeeded in producing the alarming catastrophe 
reported. They were now in a state of wholesome fear that 
they would be made to pay for the damage done ; and when 
introduced into the august presence, to explain matters, they 
went down on their knees, thrust out their tongues, and 
repeated at intervals the word * La-so.' Protruding the 
tongue as far as possible is a respectful salutation in Tibet, 
and * La-so ' is a term of respect used by inferiors ; it means 
also * be merciful.' 

Our dinner did not appear until very late. At first there 
were no candles to be found, and Chung-Erh said everything 
was * east and west,' a Chinese expression for a general state 
of disorder. 

The CQoking things were again all * east and west ' in the 
morning, and the time consumed in getting ready was 
frightful. Chin-Tai had an extraordinary genius for putting 
two forks into three boxes, and dividing his cooking things 
amongst the greatest number of packages possible, so that 
every time he wanted to prepare a meal he had to pack and 
unpack boxes enough to load a good-sized caravan. But in 
the course of time, and by the exercise of patience, every- 
thing was at last ready, and we made a start. The morning 
was beautifully fine ; there was a delicious feeling in the air, 
and, looking back down the valley, there was a glorious view 
of a snowy mountain, whose edges were just lit up by the 
rising sun, and whose glittering pinnacles of ice and snow 
shone like points of brilliant light. 

The road was broad and good ; there was not much 
traffic, but we met great droves of yaks, and half-bred oxen, 
a cross between the yak and the ox. We ascended steadily 
by an easy gradient to the head of the stream ; here the 
valley opened out, and formed a little basin, enclosed by 
bare and rugged hills, with a strip of green grass beside the 
tiny rill that trickled at the bottom. A few yards more, and, 
reaching the summit of Cheh-toh-Shan, we at length looked 
upon the great Himalaya plateau. The pass of Cheh-toh- 

o 



194 SPLENDID ALPINE PASTURES, CH. 

Shan (the Jeddo of Cooper) is 14,515 feet above the sea; 
and from this point, with the exception of a dip into the 
valley of the Ya-Lung-Chiang, the road is always at an alti- 
tude of 1 2,000 feet above the sea, until the descent into the 
valley of the Chin-Sha-Chiang is commenced at Pun-jang- 
mu. There was no snow here, but a few small patches were 
lying two hundred or three hundred feet above. 

I had outwalked everybody, and I sat down to wait for 
the rest of the party. My merry Ma-Fu alone was with me, 
and he whistled and sang as he let Manzi browse on the 
delicious herbage. 

Stretched at our feet lay a beautiful valley, closed on 
both sides by gently sloping, round-topped hills ; a carpet 
of luxuriant grass covered the whole surface of the hills 
and dales ; the richness of the pasture was astonishing, and 
thousands of yaks and sheep were feeding on the magnificent 
vegetation. The ground was yellow with buttercups, and 
the air laden with the perfume of wild flowers of every 
description. Wild currants and gooseberries, barberries, a 
sort of yew, and many other shrubs grew in profusion, but 
there were no large trees. There were a few gooseberries 
on one or two of the bushes, but they were quite unfit to 
eat. The Tibetans said that the gooseberries never ripened, 
but that the currants were sometimes eaten. 

At the summit of the pass there was a huge pile of 
stones ; and bits of rag, inscribed with the sacred sentence, 
fluttered from the heads of long poles set up in the heap. 

At this altitude there is great difficulty in breathing. 
The Tibetans ascribe this to subtle exhalations, which they 
say rise from the ground ; they call all high mountains 
* Medicine Mountains,' and so universal is this custom, that 
the comparative heights may be roughly guessed at by the 
amount of * medicine ' attributed to them by the people. 

In the winter many travellers are said to die here ; the 
passage is greatly dreaded, and those who arrive safely at the 
top add a stone and a rag to the trophy, as a thank-offering 
for dangers escaped. 

When the rest of our caravan arrived, one of the horse- 
owners, a sort of petty chief, with a sword-scabbard set with 



X. THE TEA-CHURN. 195 

gieat pieces of turquoise and coral, tied a rag to one of the 
poles, and cast a stone on to the pile. 

To my surprise Ting-Ko turned up again ; he said he 
had come another day's march for the fun of the thing, 
and begged to be allowed to come with us to Bat'ang ; 
when at last I consented, he grinned with delight, and 
seemed to think more highly than ever of his remarkable 
boots. • 

A descent of about three and a half miles brought us to 
a solitary hut, glorying in the name of Hsin-Tien-Chan, or 
New Inn Stagfe ; the Tibetan name is Ti-zu, which has the 
same meaning. Here we halted for breakfast, but it was 
such a miserable place that we at once passed a unanimous 
vote for a picnic. 

A couple of boxes were placed beside a low table on the 
delicious fresh grass ; a gentle breeze, and now and then a 
passing cloud, moderated the sun, which was almost strong 
enough to make itself felt, and helped me to give myself up 
for a while to day-dreams and the charms of scenery and 
climate. 

This was one of those days, which come sometimes to 
a traveller, when he feels so thoroughly happy, that the 
pleasures of civilisation are forgotten, and he dreams of 
perpetually seeking fresh fields and pastures new, and of 
spending his life amongst the mountains. It must be con- 
fessed that these days are rare ; but, sitting outside the little 
shanty, the scene was so peaceful, and there was such an 
exhilaration in the air, that I thought I could contentedly 
spend the rest of my life in this lovely valley. 

Continuing our march we presently came upon a little 
tent pitched by the hill-side ; here some Tibetans were lying 
about, their fierce dogs tied up to pegs in the ground, and 
innumerable herds of cattle and sheep grazing round them. 
Outside the tent a quaint and wild group of Tibetans was 
gathered round the buttered-tea chum, making their mid- 
day meal. A bag of oatmeal lay on the ground by the 
churn, and one of the men was filling the wooden cup with 
a brass ladle. Like the wooden cups, the churn is almost a 

part of every Tibetan community. On entering a house at 

o 2 



196 TIBETAN HOUSES, CH. 

any hour, some one is certain to be seen making buttered tea 
in the churn ; a mule, with a sack of oatmeal, and a churn 
for every three or four men, forms part of every caravan ; at 
a halt the churn is inunediately produced ; and, in- fact, 
wherever there are half a dozen Tibetans gathered together, 
there the churn will be found. 

This churn is a cylinder of wood about two feet long 
and six inches in diameter. The butter is churned up in 
the boiling tea, and there is some art in doing this in such a 
manner as to make the ingredients mix properly. 

The tsanba is prepared in various ways* according to 
fancy ; the meal is sometimes kneaded with the fingers 
into a stiff paste, and eaten like a cake, and at others it 
is mixed with sufficient tea to be almost thin enough to 
drink. 

Further down we came to the first Tibetan house, at a 
distance looking like a strong castle, and up a little valley 
behind it were two or three others, together forming a small 
community or village, and from here to An-niang, houses, 
separated from one another by about a quarter or half a mile, 
stand singly on the right bank of the stream. These houses 
are great piles of loose stone with scarcely any mortar, some- 
times three or four stories high ; the roof is always flat, and 
a gable is never seen. With their little slits of windows, they 
are gloomy in the extreme, and, looking as if they were half 
in ruins, give an idea of great misery. They are, nevertheless, 
very picturesque, and the view down the valley as the sun 
was setting would have made a lovely picture. 

All this valley is covered with wild flowers, from one of 
which a paper like parchment is made ; another has the 
valuable property of killing lice ; caraway grows wild, and is 
also cultivated. Barley and oats grow well in tRe valley, but 
the people do very little but keep cattle, sheep, and ponies — 
of which there are great numbers, some exceedingly good 
looking, with quite an Arab head. 

Marching down the beautiful valley, on the 9th, by an 
excellent road, amongst the fresh green grass, buttercups, 
and wild flowers, we met large parties of Tibetans returning 
from a fair that had been held at a Lamassery a mile or two 



X. ROADSIDE GROUPS, 197 

away. Women, as well as men, were riding ponies ^ cali- 
fourchon, and as we approached they turned a few yards aside 
and dismounted. As they stood about, or sat on the grass, 
they formed most picturesque groups. The men were wild- 
looking fellows, with long shaggy hair, whose garments, 
always with a bit of red about them, seemed to have no 
shape in particular, and were gathered in with a cloth tied 
round the waist, leaving a fold in which they carried an 
immense amount of property, not only in front, but at the 
sides and behind their backs. The women, too, all wore 
something bright- coloured, and fastened up their hair with a 
circular disc of silver engraved with Tibetan characters, and 
set with coral beads. No matter how poor and dirty, they 
all wore this, expensive ornament. Both men and women 
had necklaces of turquoise, coral, or coloured glass, from 
which they hung charm-boxes of gold or silver. 

The turf was so tempting, and the air so delicious, that 
Chin-Tai and Chung- Erh could not resist the excitement of 
a gallop, and were soon racing over the level plain. Mesny's 
boy, ambitious to emulate their example, essayed to follow 
them ; but, never before in his life having ridden a horse, he 
had a tremendous fall. He was carrying Mesny's somewhat 
crazy gun, and, though he did not hurt himself, he lost one 
of the locks ; this was not noticed at the time, but by the 
aid of the almighty rupee, a search that was subsequently 
instituted proved successful, and this ill-used weapon was 
put again in order. 

At Ngoloh, which we quitted on the nth, the local 
official furnished us with an escort, and we were astonished 
to observe on one of their coats the buttons of the 47th regi- 
ment. After this we noticed that half the men we met 
buttoned their coats with British regimental buttons. These 
find their way from the old clothing in India, through Tibet, 
to the very frontiers of China. 

The first crest we reached is called in Tibetan Ka-ji-La, 
or in Chinese Ko-Erh-Shi-Shan, 14,454 feet above the sea. 
The view when we reached the summit was superb. Look- 
ing back in the direction from which we had come, range 
after range of mountains lay at our feet, culminating at last 



198 THE KING OF MOUNTAINS. CH. 

in the most magnificent snowy heights, one of which raised 
its head about four thousand or five thousand feet above its 
neighbours. It was a magnificent peak, and at this distance 
looked almost perpendicular. Its name in Tibetan is Ja-ra 
(King of the Mountains), and I never saw one that better 
deserved the name. Never before had I seen such a mag- 
nificent range of snowy mountains as here lay stretched 
before me, and it was with difficulty I could tear myself away 
from the sight. 

Our road now lay for a couple of miles over an undu- 
lating grassy plain ; at the centre of this our escort left us, 
and marched back across the ridge of Ka-ji-La. 

The official in charge of the ferry at Ho-K*ou passed us 
here. Pao had sent for him to give him instructions about 
us, and he was now on his return journey. 

From the western side of the plateau, there was a still 
finer view, and, as the day was fortunately very clear, our 
guide could show us where Ta-Chien-Lu was lying, at the 
foot of a grand snowy range. 

We now descended a narrow valley between steep hills, 
well wooded with firs, some of very large dimensions. Next 
day we observed numbers of green parrots flying about from 
tree to tree. The proper habitat of these birds is, doubtless, 
in the warm climate of Southern Yiin-Nan ; but during the 
summer, short though delicious, they fly up the two rivers, 
the Chin-Sha and Ya-Lung, and scatter about amongst the 
entrances to the valleys of the tributary streams. They may 
be seen during one or two marches on both sides of both 
rivers, but no further ; and as soon as autumn tinges the 
leaves, in all probability their green plumage disappears. 

Nia-chu-ka (Ho-K'ou, * River Mouth* in Chinese) is 
situated at an altitude of 9,222 feet, at the junction of two 
streams with the Ya-Lung- Chiang, and is surrounded on all 
sides by bare and precipitous mountains, that run sheer down 
to the water, leaving no flat ground for grass or cultivation, 
and very litde for building. Opposite the town, and dividing 
the river from the stream we had followed, a bare rock, seven 
hundred feet high, rises almost precipitously from the 
surging water ; a pile of stones marks its summit, and the 



X. RE-ASCENT TOWARDS THE PLATEAU, 199 

flutter of the pi6us rags that wave from the usual poles can 
just be discerned from the houses below. 

Though at a greater elevation, the climate is warmer than 
that of Ta-Chien-Lu, which place is particularly cold, owing 
to the masses of snowy mountains that surround it on every 
side. 

The ordinary way of crossing the Ya-Lung is in a coracle 
the shape of a walnut, made of raw hides stretched over 
wicker-work ; and as the current is rapid, and the water 
broken, it does not look a very pleasant operation. Animals 
of all kinds have to swim ; even the soldiers carrying the 
imperial despatches are obliged to leave their horses behind. 

Our baggage animals swam across in the evening ; we 
were ferried over the next morning with our servants and 
horses, and waited in one of the few houses on the right 
bank of the Ya-Lung, opposite Ho-K'ou, whilst our caravan 
was re-assembled. Our animals were at length all collected, 
and we started with two fresh soldiers ; those that had come 
with us from Ta-Chien-Lu leaving us here, and returning to 
their own quarters. 

The road from Ho-K*ou again ascends to the plateau 
from the warm valley of the Ya-Lung. Climbing up the 
bed of a tributary stream, the same order of vegetation and 
trees is seen as on the eastern side of the river. At first, 
there is neither cultivation nor pasture-land, but the road at 
once enters another dense forest of magnificent pines. Near 
Ma-geh-chung I measured the largest I saw, and its girth, 
at a height of four feet from the ground, was thirteen feet 
six inches. There were oaks also — poor scrubby things ; 
indeed it was only here by the discovery of acorns on them 
that I was able to satisfy my mind as to their identity, for 
anything less like our oaks it is hard to imagine. The 
parrots were seen no more, but amongst the trees there was 
some large jungle-fowl, called pheasants by our people — 
pheasants, however, they certainly were not, they looked 
more like jays, though much larger, and made the same 
kind of chattering noise. 

Gradually, as we ascended on the 14th, an open valley 
here and there showed us grassy hill-tops, where not even 



200 PLATEAU REGAINED, CK 

those hardy oaks and pines would grow. The forest became 
thinner, and the trees smaller, and at about four hundred or 
five hundred feet below the summit the last of the pines 
and oaks were left behind. 

The summit of Ra-ma-La is 14,915 feet above the sea, 
but none of our party seemed to experience the evil effects 
of the great medicine mountain. Of course those who 
walked found breathing difficult ; but neither Mesny nor 
myself noticed anything unpleasant, unless we stooped, 
when we felt giddy. This appeared to me the more remark- 
able, because in other countries, at much less altitudes, 
I have found difficulty in breathing even when sitting 
down. 

The crest of Ra-ma-La may be said to divide the plateau 
from the valley of the Ya-Lung-Chiang, and once across it 
we again find the green pastures, the wild flowers, the great 
herds of yaks and sheep, and the profusion of milk and 
butter so characteristic of the upland country. The plateau 
extended for many miles, and the rich grass was covered 
with buttercups and other yellow flowers, that grew together 
in great masses ; there were patches of red, purple, or blue, 
and the variety of colour was wonderful. 

The droves of yaks, ponies, and sheep were tended by 
Tibetans armed with swords and guns ; for the Tibetans, 
unlike the Chinese, always carry a long matchlock, and a 
sword studded with turquoise and coral. 

From the next crest of Ra-ma-La, 15,110 feet above the 
sea, which we reached soon after breakfast, we should have 
had a very fine view, had it not been for the heavy clouds 
on all the mountain-tops. It was, however, tolerably clear 

the west. They showed us where Lit'ang lay, about 
seventy miles distant, and an occasional flash of sunlight 
struck some snowy pinnacle on the high mountains surround- 
ing that place. The descent was not very long, and, once 
down, a level bit brought us to the village of Lit'ang-Ngoloh. 
The largest house in the place belonged to the father of one 
of our muleteers, a wealthy man in these parts, as he was 
supposed to possess property to the value of a thousand 
taels (about 300/.). 



X. HOUSE AND APPLIANCES, 20I 

Our muleteers had ridden on ahead, and all the family, 
including the ladies, came out to welcome us. The damsels 
were dressed in their best, which included a considerable 
amount of dirt, and were covered with beads and jewelry. 
On each side of the head they wore a disc of chased silver 
about the size of a saucer ; these, meeting above, formed, to a 
front view, an inverted v, thHS a. Another smaller disc was 
worn behind ; and all were loaded with coral, and sham or 
real turquoise. A lock of hair, about an inch broad, was 
brought vertically down over the centre of the forehead, and 
cut off at a level with the lower part of the nose. They had 
necklaces of beads, and great silver ornaments, and charm- 
boxes were hung from chains of beads that seemed to be 
wound about all over their bodies. 

We were led into the house with great pomp and cere- 
mony, and, as soon as we had been installed in the best 
room, the women quickly brought us buttered tea, milk, 
and sour cream. The house was really a well-built solid 
structure, quite a palace after our recent accommodation, 
and betokened the comfortable position of its owner. The 
whole of the lower area formed a covered and extensive 
stable, divided by immense pillars of wood, that supported 
the ceiling and the house above. Instead of the usual 
notched log, a sumptuous ladder led through a spacious 
trap door to the upper story. This consisted of a quad- 
rangle, the floor of which was planked, the living and 
sleeping rooms being arranged round the four sides. The 
roof of these was flat, and projected far enough to shelter 
a large portion of the quadrangle and the inmates of the 
house from the rays of the sun in the summer and from the 
snow in the winter. The roof was gained by another ladder, 
and was surrounded by a parapet ; and a covered shed was 
erected on part of it, where piles of hay were stacked. The 
room we occupied was lofty and commodious, the back wall 
of solid mud, the others of wood. The floor was planked, 
and the windows looked upon the quadrangle. We had 
some difficulty in manufacturing a table, as the simple 
people themselves having nothing that they can want to put 
upon a table are unaccustomed to the use of this article of 



202 DOMESTIC SKETCHES. CH. 

furniture. There is, however, an object of household equip- 
ment of which we Westerns are still in ignorance. 

Shaped like a table, eight feet long by two feet broad, 
and nine inches high, there is a large circular hole in the 
centre, in which a pan of charcoal or wood is put This is 
the fireplace of the country, and two persons can sit on it, 
one at each end Finding one of these in the room, we 
raised it on stools and packets of tea, and improvised for 
ourselves an excellent table. I was always astonished at 
the miserable appliances for warming rooms that are used 
in Tibet : a wretched fire lit on the floor, emitting far more 
smoke than warmth, or a pan of charcoal, such as we found 
in this room, would seem to be but a poor protection against 
the frightful severities of the climate during the winter in 
these elevated regions ; yet nothing better is ever seen, and 
it must be chiefly by clothing and food that the Tibetans 
keep themselves from perishing of cold 

We halted here a day, and when I went out on the roof 
early in the morning to put out my thermometer, I found 
the old master of the house sleeping placidly under a shed, 
wrapped up in a heap of ragged skins. Presently one of 
the girls came up with a jug of hot buttered tea and a cup ; 
she poured out a cupful, which the old man consumed, and 
then, leaving the jug beside him, she retreated below. There 
were two girls here, one the wife, and the other the sister of 
one of our muleteers. The wife was always gorgeously 
arrayed with strings of b^ads, from which great gold and 
silver ornaments were suspended ; she seemed to sleep with 
her jewelry on, for, no matter how early or how late, if we 
ever caught a glimpse of her she was still covered with these 
uncomfortable-looking accoutrements. We wanted to buy 
the complete set ; but she would not part with them, because 
she said it would be like dying before her time, and very 
unlucky. She did not show herself very much, and always 
hid if she thought either of us was looking at her. The 
other girl was dressed quite plainly, and seemed rather to 
like being looked at. There seemed to be a certain amount 
of polyandry, not to say promiscuousness about their arrange- 
ments, and I never thoroughly understood the degrees 



X. RHUBARB PLANTS, 203 

of relationship, which would have puzzled even so able a 
genealogist as Sir Bernard Burke. 

Rain clouds were hanging about the hill-tops as we left 
the hospitable village of Lit'ang-Ngoloh and marched up 
the pretty little valley between the fields, divided by stone 
walls, or hedges of wild gooseberry bushes. We then as- 
cended the hills at the other side, and entered an undulating 
country, where pines of the most beauteous form were dis- 
posed by nature in such lovely groupings that they would 
have brought feelings of despair and envy to the owner of 
the noblest European park. 

I was riding ahead with the * Long-lived Gem ' through 
the silent woods, when we started a musk-deer from its lair ; 
it bounded down the side of the hill, and disappeared in 
a thicket beyond. It was the only game I saw in all the 
journey. 

From the summit of Deh-re-La (about 14,584 feet above 
the sea) we had a fine view over one of the valleys so 
characteristic of this part of Tibet A small stream meanders 
through a little plain, enclosed on both sides by hills, 
rising sometimes as much as a thousand or fifteen hundred 
feet above the valley below. Nowhere is there any cultiva- 
tion, nor is there a tree to be seen, nothing but gentle 
slopes and rounded tops all covered with grass, the richness 
of which is marvellous, and is only seen in places where 
snow lies for three-quarters of the year. In these valleys 
there are quantities of the rhubarb so valued as a medicine ; 
it is a fine-looking plant, of which there is a very good picture 
in Prejevalsky's book. Another herb that grows in profusion 
is something like a gigantic dock ; its leaves are sometimes 
as much as two and a half feet long, and it throws up a 
straight thick stem, at the top of which is a large bunch of 
small yellow flowers ; it is not used for anything, nor in 
itself is it particularly ornamental, but the masses of big 
leaves by the side of a stream look fine and handsome 
amongst the delicate grass and wild flowers. 

From the summit of Deh-re-La, we looked across this 
plain to the mountains on the other side, and to the pass 
Wang-gi-La, a mountain of which Peh-ma now observed 



204 RAREFIED ATMOSPHERE. CH. 

that, though it was not very high, there was plenty of 
medicine in it 

The summit of this mountain is 15,558 feet above the 
sea, and the excessive rarefaction of the air renders breathing 
difficult ; but as the ascent is commenced from only a 
thousand feet below the top, and the road leads up by an 
easy gradient, the Tibetans do not realise its great altitude, 
and being quite unable to comprehend the sensations they 
experience, attribute them to noxious vapours, or other 
causes, and call the mountain a medicine mountain. 

The sun was shining brightly, and there was a gentle 
breeze ; as we marched across the little plain, the road lay 
along turf, which was simply perfect for a horse's foot ; all 
nature smiled upon us, and I began to think that the happy 
valley of Rasselas must have been in Tibet ! But ominous 
clouds were gathering, rain soon began to fall, and a change 
came o'er the spirit of the scene. When we reached the 
summit a pitiless sleet was driving before a cutting wind, 
and there was a dreary view down a narrow valley, where 
the tops of the hills were shrouded in mists. It was very 
cold, and another degree or two would certainly have 
changed the sleet into snow. What a difference a couple of 
hours made in my estimate of things in general I Two 
hours before I had been living in a sort of heaven, and now 
the happy valleys had lost their charm, and a coal fire in an 
English house seemed infinitely more desirable. 

There was nothing to vary the monotony of the march 
down the mountains. Seven miles in the driving wind and 
rain brought us to the Chinese village of Ho-chii-ka, consist- 
ing of two or three miserable tenements, of which the house 
we stopped in was the best, a wretched place with but one 
small room. One end of this was occupied by the dais usual 
in a Chinese house ; there was a hollow for a fire in the mud 
floor, but there was no window, and no hole for the escape 
of smoke ; the roof leaked horribly, and the drops coming 
through brought large quantities of mud with them. Some 
wet sticks were brought, with which a little fire was made, 
that filled the room with pungent smoke. But if our accom- 
modation was not luxurious, we soon found that the tales 



X. THE SURONG MOUNTAINS, 205 

with which we had been frightened of the impossibihty of 
obtaining food were, as usual, utterly untrue. First, some 
people brought dried fish ; and immediately afterwards w^e 
were offered, for a rupee, twenty good fresh fish just out of 
the water, averaging about half a pound each ; another man 
brought us a dozen hen's eggs and fifteen pigeon's eggs. 
Some mutton and a fowl of a certain age arrived as pre- 
sents ; the village produced one turnip, and two cabbages ; 
Chin-Tai discovered some flour, and eventually we had a 
sumptuous repast. 

On the morrow the road up the valley was good, and 
nowhere steep. We ascended through the same undulating, 
grassy country ; great herds of cattle and sheep and good- 
looking ponies were browsing on the slopes, and the silence 
was occasionally broken by the whistle or cry of the herds- 
men, or the deep bay of a dog belonging to one of the 
numerous encampments dotted over this magnificent plateau. 
As we proceeded, the rain clouds cleared off, and the sun 
now and then shone out in fitful gleams. The people say 
that here, as well as in the Lit'ang plain, it rains every after- 
noon in the summer, but that the mornings are generally 
fine. The pass Mount Shie-gi-La (14,425 feet above the 
sea) is only 1,170 feet above Ho-chii-ka, and the ascent to 
it is gradual and very easy. From here gentle slopes lead 
down about seven hundred feet to the plain. This is from 
eight to ten miles wide, and stretches out for many miles east 
and west. Opposite, a range of hills bounds the plains ; 
behind it rises the magnificent range of the Surong Moun- 
tains, stretching as far as the eye can see to the east and 
west, snowy peak rising behind snowy peak, where even ^t 
that great distance vast fields of snow almost dazzle the eye 
as the sun shines on them. 

After a march of seventeen miles Lit'ang came into view, 
a cheerless place, and one of the highest cities in the world, 
situated at an altitude of 13,280 feet above the sea.^ No 
cereals of any kind, nor potatoes, can be raised. Just 
round the houses a few half-starved cabbages and miserable 

' Potosi is 13,330 feet above the sea. 



. 2o6 LITANG, • CH. XI. 

turnips appear to be the only things that can be pro* 
duced. 

Although there are only a thousand families in the city 
there is a Lamassery within the walls containing three 
thousand Lamas, and not five miles away, another of nearly 
equal size. Notwithstanding the miserable poverty of the 
people, the Lamassery in Lit'ang is adorned with a gilded 
roof that cost an immense sum of money. The roofs of all 
the Lamasseries that I have seen are gabled like the Chinese 
roofs., and those at Lit'ang are no exception. 

Hue finds that Lit'ang means the * Plain of Copper,' but 
I could hear of no such interpretation. There are three 
hundred Tibetan and ninety-eight Chinese soldiers in the 
neighbourhood, under the command of a Shou-Pei. 




CHAPTER XI. 



THE GREAT PLATEAU. 



2. Lil'anglo Uafang. , 
Defiarlurt-QttU thi Lit'ang Plain -Higk Pass of Nga-ra-ia-Ka— 
Cold Granite Regi(m — Alarms of Robbtts — Dzong-da — Pim-dad 
Valleys again — The Cairns and Mani Inscriptions — Slufindous 
Al/iim Scene— The vast snowy Peak of Nen-da— The Guide's Htad 
turned with Wender— Sublime Aspect of the Mountains— XhoJoden- 
droHS—Slriln'ng Picture — The y'ra-ka-La— Savage Desolatimt-Our 
" Guide — Welcome on Arrival at Bafang — Ckao the Magisirale, and 
Faiauratle Impressions — Abbi Desgodins — Discharge of oar Suite — 
The Name of Bat'ang—The Plain^Possibihties of Navigation mi 
the Rivers — Earthquakes—The Great Lamatstry — Number of such 
—Causes that fill them— The Lamas a Curse to the Country— Eccen- 
tric Chinese System of Acamnts —Slavey and Cattle-holding— 
Gradual Dtpopalasion of Tibet— Hostility of the Lamas— Alleged 
Muster to bar our Advance. 

The road from Lit'ang was said to be infested with robbers, 
and we were furnished witli an escort of twelve Tibetan 
soldiers — the men who had come with us from Ho-K'cu 



2o8 COLD GRANITE REGION. ch. 

leaving us. In accordance with what the people said was 
the custom of the place, it rained all the morning, as we 
marched over the low ridges thrown out into the plain from 
the mountains on the northern side. This plain is a favourite 
summer resort of the Tibetans, and numerous encampments 
of the black tents were dotted about Immense herds of 
cattle and sheep were browsing around them, and the quiet 
was broken by the deep bay of the watch-dogs. 

On the 2oth we crossed the dreadful summit of Nga-ra- 
la-Ka, 15,753 feet above the sea. The mules were a' few 
hundred yards ahead of us, and we heard the muleteers set 
up a shout of joy as they gained the highest point They 
say that in foggy weather people often swoon here. Ting- 
Ko, the boy we picked up at Ta-Chien-Lu, seemed to feel 
the rarefaction of the air very much, and could hardly drag 
himself along. Here and there, just at the top, there were 
a few patches of snow lying in the road, but they were very 
small After passing the crests we descended over dreary 
wastes of huge granite blocks. All this mountain mass is of 
a very hard, whitish-grey granite, and is much colder than 
the sandstone ridge at the other side of the Lit'ang plain. 
A good many skulls of oxen were lying about here, and it 
can be no matter for surprise that great numbers perish in 
the winter months, when the whole place is deep in snow. 
There are no poles and no cairns to indicate the path. It 
must then be a matter of the greatest difficulty to find or 
keep the road ; and a wretched animal, stumbling between 
two boulders, each as big as a small room, would have little 
chance of escape. 

The native chief of Lit'ang had sent off parties of soldiers 
to scour the hills in all directions directly he had heard of 
our approach. This was owing to the attentions of Pao at 
Ta-Chien-Lu, who was an excellent magistrate, and had sent 
most stringent orders regarding us. He had been at one 
time Liang-Tai at Lit'ang, and when he first came he took 
such active measures, and made such severe examples of the 
first robbers he caught, that during the rest of his term 
no more brigandage was heard of in his district ; and, 
though we were no longer within his jurisdiction, his 



XI. DZONG-DA, 209 

name was still so highly respected that we were well taken 
care of. 

We halted for breakfast at a place called Dzong-Da, 
which means *dry sea.' It is 857 feet below the summit, 
and is a sort of marsh in a valley 200 yards wide and one 
mile long, running up to the east between low granite ridges 
covered with loose stones. Here we were astonished by a 
swarm of mosquitoes, most unexpected assailants, for we 
had not seen a mosquito for weeks. Dzong-Da consisted of 
no more than one hut, and we left it to march over the same 
granite waste for four miles, when, after crossing a stream, we 
suddenly struck the sandstone, and the scene changed as if 
by magic. We again entered the rounded grassy hills, and 
a little lower, descending a stream, the pine-clad valleys 
appeared, and the lovely landscape that had charmed our 
eyes in the sandstone at the other side of Lit'ang was again 
spread out before us. We descended rapidly, and every 
now and then caught a glimpse of a grand snowy range in 
the distance ; the sun came out, the air was delicious, and 
the afternoon ride was most enjoyable. 

Thirteen and a half miles from Dzong-Da, the stream we 
were following was joined by another equal in size, the two 
together forming a fair-sized river ; and here the welcome 
sight of barley met our eyes, the first cultivation we had 
seen for a long time ; and another mile and a half brought 
us to La-ma-ya, 

On the 2 1 St we found the road was very fair, though a 
little Stony in places, and the ascent to the summit, through 
sloping hills covered with beautiful grass, was neither long 
nor difficult We were still in the sandstone, and the hills 
were smooth and rounded. The pass is called Yi-la-Ka, and 
is 14,246 feet above the sea. Looking over the valley to 
the mountains on the other side, we caught a glimpse every 
now and then of a magnificent snowfield, as the clouds came 
and went across it. Down below us the road was marked 
out by the familiar religious cairns, immense piles, with * Om 
Ma-ni Pe-mi Hom ' roughly engraved on every stone ; and 
from a hill on which we were standing these heaps appeared 
like some gigantic serpent twisting through the valley. 

p 



2IO NEN'DA. GH. 

We now descended 884 feet, and mounted 250 feet to 
a pass called Man-ga-La. Down again a little way, and once 
more up, we found ourselves on another of these magni- 
ficent grassy plateaux, with a splendid panorama of snowy 
mountains. 

Our escort halted here a little while, and we spent the 
time in getting the names of the different peaks ; but the 
natives are so ignorant of these, that a mountain seen from 
one point can hardly be identified from another. Nen-Da 
and Gombo-kung-ka appeared to be the names of the two 
highest ; of the former we were afterwards thoroughly 
satisfied, but the other remained doubtful. Here enormous 
fields of snow seemed close to us, huge icy pinnacles frowned 
above us, and we could not wonder at the superstitions 
engendered in the ignorant minds of those who live amongst 
these scenes. In the icy breaths wafted from that pure 
expanse of dazzling white, imagination could hardly fail to 
feel the presence of the spirit of the frost and snow, or in 
the fitful gusts that murmured through the gullies to hear 
the rustle of that spirit's wings. The ice-blue water of the 
stream below, as it dashed over its rocky bed, seemed to 
leap for joy at its escape from the frosty trammels that 
had bound it, and the spray that broke from the rocks in 
sparkling gems seemed, in the very wantonness of mirth, to 
cast defiance at the hoary giants above. It was a scene 
never to be forgotten, and we both gazed long, with 
mingled feelings of wonder and admiration. But time is 
inexorable — our journey was not yet finished, and, mounting 
our ponies, we continued our march. 

Towards evening we had a glorious view of Mount 
Nen-Da, and, as the setting sun cast its last ray on the 
summit, I could well appreciate the solemn beauty of the 
scene. No words can describe the majestic grandeur of 
that mighty peak, whose giant mass of eternal snow and ice 
raises its glorious head seven thousand feet above the 
wondering traveller, who yet stands within five miles of its 
summit. He can but gaze with admiration, and appreciate 
the feelings of the Tibetans that have led them to call it 
Nen-Da, or The Sacred Mountain. 



XI. WANDERING SHEPHERDS, 211 

During our march on the 22nd, every valley which 
opened on our right disclosed the vast snowfields of Nen-Da, 
and with my glasses I could discern the blue glint of the ice. 
On the western side, which we saw at the end of the day, 
the snowfields seemed unhmited. With its spurs it covered 
the length of our day's march, and its summit is 20,500 feet 
above the sea. 

Ra-ti, the Tsanba of Cooper, is situated at the end of 
a charming little green plain about two miles long, with 
a width in the widest part of a little less. The village 
consists of eight families, living in two or three houses ; but 
in the plain there is a large nomad population in black tents, 
who feed their cattle in the level valley, and on the sides of 
the gently sloping ridges that enclose it. These wandering 
shepherds remain here during the short summer, but at the 
approach of winter move lower down to some less rigorous 
climate. It is believed that more than half the population 
of Tibet live in these black tents ; but, giving this due con- 
sideration, the population must be exceedingly sparse. In 
our marches we rarely passed a habitation of any kind 
between the villages. The generality of these contained no 
more than ten or a dozen families, and the largest eighty, or 
a hundred families at most. There were some Chinese at 
Ra-ti, and we stopped in a new Chinese house, built of 
wood, very roughly put together. 

On the 23rd we gained the summit of Rung-Se-La or 
San-Pa-Shan, 15,769 feet above the sea. From here we had 
a magnificent view of fog in every direction ; and the 
distance we could see was nearly a hundred yards all 
round ! 

We had a guide with us who had never seen a foreigner 
before. He was a half-breed, and rode a pony that had 
been mauled in the flank by a wolf. He was so much 
interested in us that he rode the whole way with his head 
turned round, and left the pony to find the road, which it 
did admirably. I at last began to think the guide was 
riding backwards. I was wrong, however : he was sitting 
the proper way, and none of my anticipations as to his head 
falling off came true. They say there are great numbers of 

p 2 



212 SUBLIME ASPECT. CH. 

enormous wolves here ; and in the forests, on the western 
side, there are (so they say) every kind of wild beast — 
tigers, panthers, bears, wolves, and monkeys. The descent 
of the mountain was much more difficult than the ascent ; 
but after three miles we escaped from the mist, and our toils 
were forgotten in the wild scene that lay before us. Bare 
crags towered above a sea of pines, and a weird forest of 
naked and blackened trunks seemed like the relics of some 
huge strife of the elements — indeed, it was not difficult to 
fancy the fierce conflict still being waged, and it only 
wanted the crash of thunder to complete the illusion. To 
the left a vast forest of pines rolled up the mountain-side, as 
though to storm its summit ; but far above the highest, and 
laughing to scorn their' efforts, the grim and savage rocks 
rose high towards the heavens. Thousands of dead stems 
in the van of the attack looked like the victims of this 
furious combat, whilst down below myriads of mighty pines 
seemed marshalling their hosts for a renewed assault. On 
the other side green grassy slopes looked calmly on at the 
desperate battle, whilst right in front a gigantic wall of rock, 
towering up nearly perpendicular, as though ready to hurl 
itself into the fray, reared its stupendous head into the clouds 
that sometimes swept across its summit. Not ten yards 
from us, the blackened stems of two colossal pines twisted 
their withered branches into all sorts of fantastic shapes, 
standing like spectre sentinels over the struggle. 

We gazed some time on the magnificent scene, and then, 
descending a steep and rocky path, plunged into the dense 
forest 

Here there were vast numbers of rhododendrons, called 
by the Tibetans * Ta-ma.' After much inquiry I elicited a 
Chinese name ; but as in all probability it was invented 
expressly for me, I did not put much faith in the title Yang- 
Ko-Chai. There were also great quantities of the holly- 
leaved oak. 

This is the forest of which Hue speaks in such raptures 
as the most beautiful he had seen in the mountains of Tibet ; ^ 

* Souvenirs d^un Voyage^ vol. ii. chap. viii. 



XI. SAVAGE DESOLATION, 213 

but in enumerating the trees he miscalls the holly-leaved 
oak a holly — a mistake very easy to fall into when acorns 
are not to be found. 

When we halted to use the hypsometer a little below the 
summit of the pass of Ta-So, the scene would have made a 
splendid picture — the wild surroundings of bare rocks, and 
the still more wild-looking fellows grouped about, with their 
tall felt hats, their sword scabbards set with coral and tur- 
quoise, and long matchlocks, with prongs at the end of the 
barrel ; Mesny with a long scarlet cloak reaching almost 
to the ground, the ponies with their queer saddles covered 
with felts and sheepskins, and the transparent water of the 
little pond reflecting the proceedings. We were 16,129 
feet above the sea, and the summit of the pass was 540 feet 
above us. 

The rocks here were full of iron, and affected the com- 
pass, how much I could not tell. I took a bearing as an 
experiment close to a rock, and, moving only a few yards, 
found a difference of a degree and a half. The tops of the 
crags were all yellow with iron, which sometimes produced 
remarkable effects. 

The Tibetan name for this mountain is J'Ra-ka-La^ but, 
strange to say, this is almost forgotten, and it is usually 
spoken of as the Ta-So-Shan ; even Peh-ma and the Ma-Fu, 
whom we had questioned on the subject, had forgotten the 
native name, and it was not until after some conversation 
with the muleteers that they recollected it. 

We reached the summit without much difficulty ; there 
was no snow anywhere visible, nor was there any view, as 
the mountains were all shrouded in heavy clouds. Here, on 
the razor-like edge of the ridge, there was a pile of stones ; 
the pious of our party added to the heap, and knocked their 
heads in thankfulness to Buddha for the dangers happily 
passed. 

Just over the crest of the pass there is a great basin two 
miles in diameter, and such a wild and savage scene I never 
before looked on — a very abomination of desolation. Great 
masses of bare rock rising all round ; their tops perpendi- 
cular torn and rent into every conceivable shape by the 



214 OUR GUIDE. CH. 

rigour of the climate. Long slopes of debris that had fallen 
from these were at the bottom, and great blocks of rock, 
scattered over the flat of the basin, lay tumbled about in 
most awful confusion amongst the masses that cropped out 
from below the surface. Three or four small ponds formed 
in the hollows were the sources of the stream that, descend- 
ing from the basin, plunged into another valley, and, falling 
rapidly, soon became a roaring torrent, dashing through 
mile after mile of dense pine forest. The stillness of this 
place was very remarkable. The air was so rarefied that I 
could hardly hear the horses^ feet only a few yards off, and 
when quite out of hearing of these, as I walked on alone, 
the silence was most impressive. 

The road began badly, over the rugged stones of this 
desolate spot ; it went on worse, as, descending sharply, it 
plunged into the enormous pine forest of which we now only 
saw the commencement ; and it ended worst of all in a sea 
of black mud spread over the same unpleasant masses of 
rock. 

The guide, who rode ahead, was a very remarkable 
figure. He had no head-dress whatever, and his hair fell in 
tangled locks over his shoulders. He had a very long nose, 
like many of the people here — a great contrast to the small 
features of the Chinamen. He had no hair on his face, and 
he was dressed in one garment of coarse sacking. A long 
matchlock with prongs and a huge cooking cauldron were 
slung at his back ; the end of a coral-mounted sword pro- 
jected from his clothes. His little pony was covered with 
felts and sheepskins, and at each side of the saddle were 
two great sacks. All the way down the * Long-lived Gem * 
walked beside him, and narrated some wonderful stories, 
probably about ourselves, and his exclamations of surprise 
were continued. * Ari-i-i,' he would say, dwelling on the 
final i, and drawing it out for nearly a minute. Then, as 
evidently the Ma-Fu made some more than usual astounding 
statement, the guide would turn his head, and look at us 
wnth wide open eyes, and exclaim * Eh-h-h-h, i-i-i-i.' 

We trudged into Bat'ang on the 25th, and were con- 
ducted straight to the house prepared for us, where we 



XI, WELCOME AT BAT'ANG. 215 

immediately received an exceedingly kind note from Mon- 
sieur Desgodins, accompanied by a loaf of excellent bread, 
a bottle of wine, and some peaches. 

We had barely washed our hands when the Liang-Tai 
* Chao ' was announced, and the chief military officer with 
him. After complimenting me on my Hterary ability, he 
said we could hardly get away in two days, but that he 
would have everything ready if we remained three days. 
This announced rapidity of action was as unexpected as it 
was gratifying, and I could scarcely believe that the perform- 
ance would equal the promise. Chao was a man with a 
very agreeable countenance, bearing on it the signs of his 
active mind; unlike most Chinamen, both he and the 
military official here cut their nails short. I remarked on 
this to Monsieur Desgodins, who answered, * Ah ! but they 
are real workers.' Chao always appeared to be at work, 
writing or reading despatches, and his physical was almost 
as great as his mental activity. He was a remarkably small 
eater ; I scarcely ever saw a man who ate less, and I 
had many opportunities of forming an opinion. Monsieur 
Desgodins always spoke of him as a model magistrate, who 
endeavoured to deal fairly with all classes : altogether he was 
a remarkable man, and a bright contrast to the generality 
of Chinese officials. 

After the usual complimentary questions regarding our 
honourable names and honourable ages, Chao asked if we 
had any rifled artillery in our portmanteaus. This question 
was not put as a joke, but meant in all seriousness. On our 
replying in the negative, he said, * Ah ! if you only could 
have given me one or two I soon would have made these 
Tibetans say " La-so " ; now I often have to say " La-so " to 
them.' This unpremeditated question and remark did more 
to show the true nature of the relations between the Chinese 
and Tibetans than anything else I had seen or heard. After 
he had gone, we called on Monsieur Desgodins, who was 
living alone. He is a most interesting and intelligent man, 
and has made many valuable observations on the geography 
of a totally unknown country, which he has had rare oppor- 
tunities of studying. 



2i6 DISCHARGE OF OUR SUITE. CH. 

The first business to be undertaken in the morning was the 
payment of the muleteers, chair cooHes, Ma-Fus, and inter- 
preter, and the presentation of gifts to the many soldiers who 
had accompanied us. 

We had bargained with the muleteers to do the journey 
in twenty days, and, as they had accomplished it in nineteen, 
they were well entitled to the extra payments that made 
their eyes glisten with delight, and they thrust out their 
tongues further than I could have deemed possible. They 
afterwards returned, bringing a present of a jar of spirit 
made from what is here called black-wheat In the process 
of manufacture, sticks of juniper, a shrub that grows in pro- 
fusion on the mountains, are thrown in, and the taste of the 
liquor is very much like that of weak gin. When the gift 
had been accepted, they begged that if any other of our 
countrymen should pass this way we would recommend 
them, and they would serve them as well as they had treated 
us. 

The chair coolies were so pleased with their rewards 
that they determined at once to take me further ; this was a 
great convenience, as they had now fallen into my ways. 
The Ma-Fus, however, wished to return to their families, 
for which I was sorry, as they had both been exceedingly 
good servants ; Peh-ma also returned to his little bit of land 

though they all three seemed doubtful of reaching their 

houses in safety, on account of robbers. I subsequently 
learned that they would have been willing to come with us 
to Ta-Li-Fu, had it not been for Chin-Tai, whose overbear- 
ing manner they were unable to endure. 

Now, every person who could possibly frame an excuse 
brought presents ; first they came singly, then collectively, 
till I began to suspect they were like an army on the stage, 
and refused to pay for any more of the so-called gifts. 

The Abb^ Hue declares that the name Bat'ang means 
the * Plain of Cows,' though in. what language he does not 
say.^ The Tibetan name of the place is Ba, a word that has 

2 Without presuming to have an opinion, let it be said, in justice to 
Hue, that Jaeschke's Tibetan dictionary gives Ba or Bha=^^ cow,' and 
thatig « * plain.' — K. 



XI. THE PLAIN OF BAT'ANG. 217 

no meaning ; the Chinese have added their favourite termi- 
nation T'ang, which may mean either a place or a post 
station. The name the * Plain of Cows ' would certainly 
be inappropriate, for the plain, such as it is, is nearly 
entirely given up to cultivation. 

There is a fable connected with the origin of the name, 
which is probably without any foundation of truth, but the 
existence of which clearly shows that the word * Ba ' can 
have no meaning. The story goes that once upon a time 
an old man and his wife wandering over the mountains with 
one sheep, their sole possession, in search of a habitation, 
came upon this place, and, enchanted with its position, 
warmth, and fertility, decided to settle here, but could not 
think of a suitable name. Whilst they were discussing the 
question, the sheep began to bleat, and they agreed at 
once that the animal had decided the matter, and called it 
^Ba.' 

Bat'ang is well situated on a stream ; it is about half a 
mile from the left bank of the river, and in a somewhat 
commanding position overlooks the plain. 

The plain of Bat'ang, described by Hue as * La magni- 
fique, la ravissante plaine de Bat'ang,' lies at an altitude of 
8,540 feet above the sea ; but, notwithstanding this, its shel- 
tered position, and distance from the mountains of perpetual 
snow, render the climate temperate and agreeable. At the 
time of our visit it was very warm, and the number of house- 
flies that swarmed in the houses, the streets, and even in the 
fields, was very remarkable, and equally disagreeable. The 
plain is not more than two or three miles long and one to 
two miles wide, and is enclosed by almost bare and precipi- 
tous mountains. There is scarcely a tree to be seen in its 
length and breadth, and it is nearly altogether given up to 
the cultivation of wheat, black-wheat, buck-wheat, barley, 
and Indian corn. Before the earthquake in 1871 the 
vines of Bat'ang were celebrated, and the native chief used 
to make great quantities of wine ; but since that year, the 
vines have either not been replanted, or they have not had 
time to grow, for now there are very few, and wine is made 
only in very small quantities. Mulberry-trees grow well in 



2i8 EARTHQUAKES, CH. 

the vicinity, but silk is not manufactured, as killing the 
cocoon of the silkworm is a mortal sin. 

The Bat'ang river, a rapid stream twenty-iive yards wide, 
winds through the plain, and joins the Chin-Sha-Chiang five 
miles below the town. Neither river is navigated, though 
there are a few boats on the Chin-Sha, a little lower down, 
at a place called Niu-K^ou. These, however, are only used 
for local purposes, and do not venture more than a few 
miles. I subsequently had many opportunities of forming 
an opinion, and certainly the river Chin-Sha is, generally 
speaking, not navigable above Shi-Ku, though there are 
many long, broad, quiet reaches where boats could be used. 
The boats in use at Niu-K'ou are mostly made of about 
eight raw bullock hides stretched over a wooden framework ; 
one man only sits in them, and he steers from the bow with 
a paddle. They descend the stream in this way, and are 
carried back by land, the boat being sufficiently light to be 
easily carried on a man's back. There are also a few wooden 
boats at Niu-K'ou, that can be tracked a short distance 
against the stream, but these only ascend a few miles. 

In 187 1 Bat'ang was visited by a frightful series of earth- 
quakes, which, lasting over many weeks, devastated the 
whole neighbourhood. In the town itself not one house 
was left standing, and the loss of life was awful ; there was 
not one family in which there was not one dead. The traces 
of this appalling calamity are still to be seen for many miles 
around this ill-fated town. The hill-sides are rent and torn, 
and huge slopes of debris^ hurled from the mountains, have 
in many places buried and obliterated the ancient paths. 

The town is now perfectly new, and every house is fresh ; 
of these there are about two hundred, containing three 
hundred families, who are chiefly remarkable for their reputed 
immorality. 

Close to the bank of the little river of Bat'ang, in the 
midst of the waving cornfields, like the monks of old, the 
Lamas of Bat'ang have built their Lamassery, and, sheltered 
by the golden roof that cost upwards of 1,000/., thirteen 
hundred Lamas live in idleness. Lama is the Tibetan word 
for * monk,' and means in their language * superior person ; 



XI. THE GREAT LAMASSERY. 219 

the French use the term * Bonze ; ' and the Chinese in the 
west have another name which, translated into EngHsh, means 
neither more nor less than * criminals whose lives have been 
spared/ although the word in its application has lost some- 
what of its signification. The story is that when the religion 
of Buddha was first established here, it was impossible to 
find inhabitants for the Lamasseries that were built, until 
they sent to these institutions all the criminals condemned 
to death. The Chinese now use this phrase for their'priests, 
and see nothing incongruous in the epithet. 

The number of Lamasseries throughout the country is 
astounding. At the small town of Ta-Chien-Lu there are 
three. At Lit'ang — a town of a thousand families — there 
are three thousand Lamas in the principal Lamassery ; and 
outside the town is another building containing nearly as 
many. At Bat'ang, where there are only three hundred 
families, the Lamassery contains thirteen hundred Lamas. 
The traveller may march for days, passing by only a few 
straggling villages, containing at most ten or a dozen houses, 
and yet every now and then he is sure to hear of some huge 
Lamassery not far from his road. 

Whatever may have been the difficulty in filling these 
institutions in the early days of the Buddhist religion, it is 
only too easy now. Parents who have a son, or sons, with 
whom they can do nothing, or whom they cannot afford to 
maintain, send their useless offspring with a gift to the 
nearest Lamassery. If a man gets into debt and cannot pay, 
he enters a Lamassery, where he is safe from any assault on 
the part of his creditor. If any one owes money to a Lamas- 
sery, as soon as the Lamas can get no more interest from 
him, they seize his land, he soon follows his possessions, and 
becomes a Lama. 

The idle member of a family will turn Lama ; he can 
then rejoin his relations for short periods of amusement or 
distraction, during which time he lives at their expense. All 
those who, having committed crimes, wish to escape their 
deserved punishment, enter a Lamassery, and shelter them- 
selves under the cloak of their assumed sanctity. The 
Lamasseries are further peopled by the country-born children 



220 LAMAS A CURSE TO THE COUNTRY. CH. 

of the Chinese soldiers of the garrisons in Tibet. When 
these return to China, the foreign wives and children are 
left behind, and the latter, in that case, generally enter a 
Lamassery. 

Occasionally a Chinese soldier will take his wife back 
with him ; but to do this requires an amount of moral courage 
not often found. For, instead of being admired for his con- 
stancy, he will meet with nothing but the gibes and sneers 
of his companions for his folly and ill-taste in burdening 
himself with a barbarian woman and her children. 

The Lamas and Lamasseries are enormously rich. They 
certainly possess the greater part of the cultivated land in 
the plain of Bat'ang, and now must own nearly half of the 
country. Their wealth is daily increased, partly by legacies 
— for a dying man generally leaves something to the neigh- 
bouring Lamassery — but still more by usury. Being the 
only people in the country who have any property, a man 
in want of money always applies to the I^mas, and then his 
fate is sealed as surely as when some spendthrift in London 
commences dealings with the Jews. The rate of interest 
they exact for loans, even when real property is mortgaged, 
is fatal to the borrower. Interest mounts up, and, left un- 
paid, interest on interest, till at last, utterly crushed by the 
extortion of his creditors — his land gone, and with nothing 
left — the unfortunate debtor mortgages himself and his 
services for some temporary loan, and ultimately becomes 
a Lama. 

The Lamas do not spend all their time in the Lamas- 
series entirely given up to devotion. On the contrary, theirs 
is a life of freedom. Whenever so inclined, they leave their 
Lamassery, return a while to their families, or to almost any 
house they choose to enter, spend their days as they please, 
and take anything they fancy away with them. This priest- 
hood assists in no way in the maintenance of the State ; 
their lands are free from taxation ; they never lend their 
horses or animals for the public service, and do not pay one 
iota towards the Government expenses. They scarcely work 
in their fields themselves, as every Lamassery possesses 
hundreds of slaves. Thus the Lamas, by profession celi- 



XI. ECCENTRIC SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTS. 221 

bates, but in practice profligates, live in idleness and im- 
morality — a curse to the country and the people. 

The chiefdom of Bat'ang is governed by its native chief, 
under the immediate supervision of a Chinese official, who 
is paramount in the place. The taxes are collected by the 
native chiefs, who pay the imperial taxes to the Chinese 
official, who in his turn remits them to Peking. Not very 
long ago, the system of accounts adopted by the Chinese 
Government being imperfect, it was customary to send the 
whole of the imperial taxes in bulHon, at least as far as Ya- 
Chou ; the pay of the Chinese officials and soldiers being 
also sent in bullion back to Bat'ang. In recent years, how- 
ever, knowledge of book-keeping has advanced sufficiently 
far amongst the Chinese to enable them to abolish this 
clumsy process, although the novel experiment has not been 
quite so successful as might have been expected, for the 
predecessor of Chao, in the office of Liang-Tai of Bat'ang, 
was a careless, indolent person. He spent the money him- 
self, or allowed the native chiefs who collect the taxes to 
spend it, and neglected for some years to render an account 
to the governor-general of Ssii-Ch'uan, to whom he was 
responsible. 

This governor-general must have been a careless person 
also, and probably the Liang-Tai trusted to this weakness in 
his character ; but he suddenly demanded not only the 
year's taxes but all the arrears. The Liang-Tai failed to 
produce them ; he was deposed, and Chao appointed in his 
stead. 

Chao was at first afraid that he would have been called 
upon to pay the arrears, and, knowing how ill the miserable 
people whom he was to rule could afford any extra taxa- 
tion, he refused the appointment, until it was clearly and 
plainly agreed upon that he should not be expected to 
produce anything more than the taxes for the period of his 
service. 

Besides the imperial tax that is sent to Peking, there is 
another tax for the native chief The assessment is per 
village. The amount that each village has to pay was 
settled a hundred years ago, according to the number of 



222 GRADUAL DEPOPULATION, CH. 

families residing in it Since the date of this assessment 
the lay population of the country has diminished fifty or 
sixty per cent., and, as it continues to diminish, the tax 
becomes yearly heavier, and is now almost unendurable : so 
much so, that from this part of Tibet the people emigrate in 
considerable numbers to avoid the pressure of taxation and 
the hated rule of the Lamas. 

Slavery is a great institution in Tibet. There are rich 
families who own five or six hundred slaves. These are 
hereditary, and are often treated very cruelly. A family 
always counts its riches in slaves and cattle ; but in Tibet 
proper, more by the number of slaves than by the head of 
cattle. 

In this part of the country a man with three or four 
hundred head of cattle is rich, while one who has only 
twenty or thirty is considered poor. Even the agriculturists 
reckon their fortunes in mules and ponies, and not in land ; 
for in a family there is rarely enough land to support the 
whole. One or another of their number then undertakes 
the trading, and has charge of the mules, yaks, or ponies, 
used as beasts of burden, which thus become the measure of 
the family fortune. 

Tibet is being gradually depopulated ; partly by the 
oppression of the Lamas, who are detested by the people as 
much as they are feared, and partly by emigration to Yiin- 
Nan. Empty and deserted villages are constantly seen, and 
Monsieur Desgodins informed me that, even during the short 
time of his stay in the country, the decrease of the popula- 
tion in those parts well known to him had been enormous. 

As the lay population diminishes by emigration, the land 
that the emigrants leave behind does not go to increase the 
fortunes of the remainder ; but, on the contrary, these are 
the more impoverished, for nearly the whole of this land 
passes to the Lamasseries, and, being no longer available as 
a source of taxation, the burden on the remainder, who still 
have to pay the same amount, is increased. 

There can be no doubt that the Lamas were very strongly 
opposed to our entry into Tibet. Rumour, with her thou- 
sand tongues, had already been abroad, and the Lamas were 



XI. ALLEGED MUSTER TO BAR ADVANCE, 223 

expecting an attempted entry on the part of both Russians 
and English, which they were determined to resist. Whether 
the Chinese power in Tibet is as feeble as it is represented, 
it is difficult to say, but in all probability the Chinese have 
but a slender hold on the Tibetans, who, if it were not for 
the convenience of trade, might cease the payment of 
tribute. It was perfectly clear from the manners of both 
Chao and the military official, that they were exceedingly 
uneasy at the idea of any attempt to enter Tibet proper. 
Chao said that if we wished to go, he was bound by the 
letters he had received to do his best, but that it would be 
quite impossible to enter peacefully, and if we insisted on 
making the attempt, we should, in all probability, be obliged 
to fight our way. That he was really concerned for our 
safety was sufficiently proved by the fact that, even after he 
was quite satisfied that we really were going to A-tun-tzu, 
and not to Lassa, he not only came with us himself an eight 
days' march, but brought the native chief and an immense 
escort with him. That this was mere espionage is quite im- 
possible ; he could have sent half a dozen spies, if he had 
been so minded, who would have reported our most minute 
actions as closely as he could have observed them himself ; 
and certainly, without some grave reason, he would not have 
put himself to the trouble and discomfort of this journey. 

We were also told that the T.amas had ordered out six 
thousand men to guard the frontier, and our informant said 
that he had met the messenger sent by the Lamas to report 
our arrival. Numbers are of course always enormously 
exaggerated, and the six thousand was not, in all probability, 
as many hundreds ; but there can be little doubt that the 
Lamas, whose power is almost absolute, had made up their 
minds to resist any attempted advance on our part ; and 
even if open hostility and violence had not been attempted, 
they would have simply starved us out. The whole country 
is in their hands, and if they had forbidden the inhabitants 
to give us food for ourselves and people, and forage for our 
animals, or to receive us into their houses, or supply us 
with transport, their orders would have been obeyed to the 
letter. 




CHAPTER XII. 

REfilON OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND. 
I. Bat'artg U SAa-Lu. 
Dcparluri from Bal'aitg—Aiiitux la MM. Dcsgodins and BUt — 

Ftatura of the Gtography, ami Jf /lotion behatm Read and Rhien 4 
i'alUy ef Iht Chin-Sha ar Golden Sand— A False Alarm— yatlrn 
across the Cliin-Sha.—Fiiu Scenery of the Kong-la-ka I'tut^ 
QtiaHfrs at Jiing-ia — Greiath of our Escei't- — Armed Oppcilt 
en theLaaa Riad—The River ef Kiang-ka—tfosfiiabb Ptefh 
Dtsolaled Cunnlry—ChS-susg-dho {Coupes ' Jtssundee'^—TsatA-X 
'The Bey the Father ef the Mm'— Watershed bitwetn IhtCkt^ 
Sha ^td iht Lan-T' sang— Camping Ground of Lung-ok _ _^ 
Tie Bamboo seen again -Tie Gorge of Dong—ParalUl ^'imr. 

fram North to South— The Town ef A-tHH-lsil—Evil ChenuttfA 
A-lun-tiS-Prenattiue ef Cettre— Water Analysis— FareineU Pil^ 

from Chae and tie Native Ckiif— Ceremonies of Adieu — ~ 
ef Opium-smoting in ySa-Nan—Long and Moist March. 



CH. XII. DEPARTURE FROM BATANG, 225 

Before leaving Bat'ang the native chief sent soldiers out 
over the mountains to look for robbers or others who might 
wish to molest us, and when we left he came with us himself 
at the order of Chao, and brought a considerable escort with 
him ; so that, with mules and muleteers, Chao and the chief, 
besides soldiers Chinese and soldiers Tibetan, as well as 
coolies and servants, we were more like an army than a 
private party. 

Soon after leaving, we met Messieurs Desgodins and 
Biet, who escorted us a little way ; and then Peh-ma and 
the two Gems were by the roadside with a tray of wine, 
which we tasted. 

Half a mile further we met the native chief, and all 
rode on together till Messieurs Desgodins and Biet bade us 
adieu, and turned their horses towards Bat'ang. During 
my short stay Monsieur Desgodins had been a delightful 
companion ; full of intelligence, his conversation had been 
most interesting, and it was with great regret that I parted 
from him. Monsieur Biet has now taken the place of the late 
Monseigneur Chauveau, and is the Bishop%t Ta-Chien-Lu. 

The great plateau that extends over the whole of Central 
Asia throws down a huge arm between the Chin-Sha-Chiang 
(the River of Golden Sand) and the Lan-Ts'ang-Chiang, 
gradually diminishing in altitude as it extends to the south. 
The northern portion of this arm partakes more or less of 
the characteristics of the main table-land, but even in the 
latitude of Bat'ang the difference is apparent, and it becomes 
more striking as Ta-Li-Fu is approached. This arm is not 
more than thirty-five miles wide in the latitude of Bat'ang; and 
as the crest is generally about five or six thousand feet above 
the river, it is little more than a ridge of mountains running 
nearly due north and south between the two streams. A-tun- 
tzii lies on the western slope of this huge rib, the road from 
Bat'ang crossing the crest at the pass of Tsaleh-La-ka, 
15,788 feet above the sea. This is the main road to Yiin- 
Nan, and is so conducted, in all probability, partly for the 
sake of passing through the important town of A-tun-tzu.^ 

» The Atenze of T. T. Cooper.— -K 

Q 



226 BROAD GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES. CH. 

It might be expected that, as the road to Yiin-Nan again 
returns to the Ching-Sha valley, south of A-tun-tzii, there 
would be another and easier road, by following the valley of 
the great river instead of leaving and returning to it. But 
in all probability there is no road down the valley of the 
Chin-Sha ; the river appears to run through a succession of 
deep gorges, much as it does between Ch'ung-Ch'ing and 
I-Ch'ang, and as the Lan-T-s'ang does near A-tun-tzti, as well 
as further south, where the same river is crossed by the road 
from Ta-Li-Fu to Burmah. 

Moreover, the road from Deung-do-lin to Tz'ii-kua keeps 
to the eastern face of the ridge, or, in other words, to the 
Chin-Sha basin ; but near Deung-do-lin one glimpse is all 
that is gained of the river, a few miles distant, evidently 
tearing through an exceedingly steep gorge. The road then 
leaves the river to the east, and, by two exceedingly difficult 
passes, crosses two very elevated spurs thrown out to the east 
from the main ridge, which still runs north and south. The 
crossing of each of these spurs is at least as difficult as the 
passage of the main ridge ; for the valleys dividing them are 
four thousand feet deep, and their sides excessively steep. In 
crossing these spurs, the road passes no town whatever, and 
there is clearly no reason why it should not follow the river, 
if there was a practicable route. The probable conclusion is 
that the river, at all events between Deung-do-lin and La-pu, 
flows through narrow gorges, where there is neither a road 
nor a possibility of navigation ; and it would seem reasonable 
to believe that the case is the same between Bat'ang and 
Deung-do-lin, and that all the rivers running nearly due 
north and south of this region maintain the same character- 
istics of rapid streams in deep and narrow rifts. 

We descended the Bat'ang river, a little stream of clear 
water twenty-five yards wide, for five miles ; then leaving it 
we crossed a low spur that divides it from the Chin-Sha, a 
muddy turbid river one hundred and seventy to two hundred 
yards in breadth. 

The valley of the Chin-Sha is somewhat dreary. The 
steep and broken sandstone hills descend at a very steep 
angle sheer down to the w^ater, leaving — except at the 



XII. A FALSE ALARM. 2^7 

efnbouchure of some small stream — no place for cultivation. 
The path running along the edge of the river is strewn with 
stones ; the hill-sides are nearly bare ; and every now and 
then there are long, steep slopes of loose rocks and debris^ 
or small precipices by the road or up above it, the result 
of the convulsions that destroyed Bat'ang and tore the 
mountain-sides in all directions. 

We breakfasted at Niu-Ku, where there were a few 
leather boats, by which some of our coolies relieved them- 
selves of their burdens. Here some despatches arrived for 
Chao from I.assa ; he swallowed a mouthful of food in a 
hurry, and set to work to answer them before proceeding on 
the march. 

Our cooking things were either in front of us or behind ; 
and, much to our astonishment, the people of the house 
produced three little tin plates with an English alphabet 
round the edge, and a picture in the middle of Sir Henry 
Havelock, K.C.B., on a prancing horse. By what route they 
had come here we failed to find out. 

In the afternoon, as I was riding in front, I suddenly 
heard a shot ; and, looking up, I saw half a dozen wild- 
looking fellows, with guns, behind a rock. For a moment 
the idea of an attack came into my head, but it was soon 
dispelled by a Chinese soldier dashing forward, for I knew 
that no Chinese soldier would voluntarily expose himself to 
danger. It is customary for large parties of a wild tribe of 
barbarians, sometimes two hundred or three hundred strong, 
to descend to this spot from the opposite side of the river, 
and attack the caravans of passing officials or traders. If 
these are Tibetans, or half-breeds, they do no more than 
rob them ; but if they are Chinese they take them prisoners, 
and keep them until ransomed. There is a little square fort 
here for some guardians of the place ; and it was these who 
had fired a salute in our honour, for which act of homage 
they of course expected a few rupees. 

Crossing the Chin-Sha near Chu-ba-lang, we reach Kong- 
tze-ka, 11,675 feet above the sea, on the 30th. The scenery 
round this village would make the fortune of a Swiss hotel 
proprietor, if only it could be moved a few thousand miles 

Q2 



228 FINE SCENERY, CH. 

in a westerly direction. I ascended to the housetop in the 
early morning, and thence my gaze roamed over a valley of 
wondrous beauty, enclosed by grassy hills, where masses of 
primrose-coloured flowers brought to mind many a bank in 
England. On the hill-side the pines and holly-leaved oaks 
contrasted their deep green with the brilliant yellow of the 
flowers. Here and there lovely slopes of the freshest grass 
were dotted with trees of the most graceful forms and 
delicate hues. In the distance rolling mountains filled the 
background ; and the stream was heard rushing four 
hundred feet below. Herds of sheep and cattle luxuriated 
in the pasture, and round the village there were fields of 
wheat, barley, buckwheat, and pease. The usual wild goose- 
berry formed natural fences, and a road led along the hills 
right through lovely woods of pines, yews, and juniper. 
The road followed up the side of a stream. As we ascended, 
the hills became less steep, and presently we entered a 
charming plain about half ^ mile to a mile wide. Here the 
French missionaries have built a house on some property 
they have bought, and for a summer residence it is hardly 
possible to imagine a more delightful spot. The house is 
situated at the foot of a gentle spur thrown out from rugged 
mountains behind. A waving field of barley surrounds it ; 
a meadow of grass, yellow with a carpet of flowers, lies 
beyond, where a stream meanders by a few large trees, and 
where great herds of cattle, sheep, and ponies stand up to 
their knees in the luxuriant herbage. Opposite the house 
the valley is closed by spurs of bright red sandstone from a 
range of higher hills behind. Just above the little building 
a Lamassery stands on a grassy knoll ; and two Lamas 
dressed in red, crouching under the hedge of the mis- 
sionaries' enclosure, scowled at us as we passed. Some 
time back the missionaries' house was destroyed at the 
instigation of the Lamas, but Chao rebuilt it at his own 
expense. 

In this valley the usual piles of stones are capped with 
flat slabs of white marble. These heaps are of a pyramidical 
form ; at a distance the white tops have the appearance 
of a row of English bell tents ; and, looking through my 



ARMED OPPOSITION, 229 

glasses, I almost expected to see a red-coat pacing up and 
down in front. 

The morning of the 31st had been very fine, but before 
we had finished breakfast heavy clouds were gathering 
ominously, and promised us a wet afternoon. Chao and 
the chief started off before us, and, following them, we rode 
over an undulating plateau, about thirteen thousand feet 
above the sea, whence we could see a high range of snowy 
mountains to the south-east, their tops hidden amongst 
heavy clouds. We had not long left the shelter of the 
village when the thunder began to roll in the distance, and 
a heavy downpour of rain descended. 

I noticed that our escort, which had been gradually in- 
creasing, had by this time reached formidable proportions, 
and that now there were some two hundred men and officers 
with us. The officers wear felt hats, of the shape of our tall 
hats, but rather lower, with a broader flat brim. The men 
and officers are generally armed with a long matchlock, 
with prongs to rest on the ground, and two swords, one for 
cutting and the other for • thrusting. All are mounted on 
Tibetan ponies, and carry great rolls of blanket and felt on 
their saddles. 

I was riding on ahead of Mesny, and, in the wind and 
driving sleety rain, took but little heed of a man muffled in a 
big cloak crouching down on the opposite hill. A few yards 
further I suddenly found Chao and the native chief behind 
a knoll surrounded by about a hundred horsemen } and a 
quarter of a mile distant, on the opposite hill, some three 
hundred Tibetans were encamped, who had come out to 
oppose us if we should attempt the road to Lassa. When 
first they saw us coming they had fired off warning guns, 
although Chao had sent to them to say that we were going 
to A-tun-tzii. 

When we had safely passed the encamped Tibetans, but 
not till then, Chao followed us, and, with two hundred soldiers, 
we marched in the drenching rain along slopes cut up by 
deep ravines and valleys, where the red sandstone, breaking 
through the rich grass, contrasted with the dark hue of the 
pines and oaks on the hill-tops. 



230 THE VERMILION RIVER. CH. 

I was assured that the woods were full of monkeys ; but 
my scepticism was apparent, and it was with an air of triumph 
that my people called my attention to what they said was 
a monkey. The truthful field-glass, however, discovered 
nothing more inhuman than a boy ; but, still, the repeated 
assertions of the people that the woods are full of monkeys 
are probably not without foundation. 

The river of Kiang-ka, or the Vermilion River of 
Cooper, takes its rise in about latitude 30° 20', and, passing 
the town of Kiang-ka, waters the plain of Dzung-ngyu, 
where it is about fifteen yards wide. The basin of the 
upper portion of this river is composed nearly entirely of 
red sandstone and red clay, which gives the water the 
remarkable red-brown colour observed by Cooper. 

We followed the twists and turns of this tortuous stream 
through a rather dreary valley, where the view was limited 
to about half a mile of steep, high, and almost bare hills, 
and after a few miles we found Chao and the Bat'ang chief 
waiting for us in the house of another petty chief, where a 
few carpets were spread on the floor, and where butter, 
cheese, and tsanba were laid out on a low stool. It is 
a strong instinct of hospitality that prompts the master of a 
house thus to put food and drink ready for his guests ; nor 
is this done with any niggard hand — a huge circular pat of 
butter about an inch thick, a cake of cheese of the same 
size, and great jars of oatmeal with gaily painted wooden 
covers, invite the travellers to partake freely of the best the 
household can produce ; the tea-churn is not far distant, 
and, taking his wooden bowl from the fold of his coat, a 
Tibetan soon makes an ample and luxuriant repast. 

From here we marched over an execrable road ; and 
although Chao had taken care that the worst places were 
repaired, the track was so narrow and fearfully stony that 
it was necessary to dismount once or twice where steep and 
slippery steps had been cut out on the face of the cliffs. 
Wherever the valley opened a little, there were a few houses 
close down by the river, all built, as at Bat'ang, of rammed 
earth, and embowered in clumps of walnuts, peaches, and 
weeping willows. The number of inhabitants was small ; 



XII. COOPERS 'JESSUNDEE: 231 

and the frequent ruins were sad proof of the diminution of 
the population, and the oppressive rule of the Lamas. We 
had been making inquiries for Jessundee, with the intention 
of saying a few words if possible to the old man who had 
treated Cooper so well ; but in Chti-sung-dho we failed at 
the time to recognise the name, and so we lost the oppor- 
tunity. Chii-sung-dho means the * meeting of three waters.' 
Here we left the muddy river, and, ascending the bed of a 
beautiful clear stream, we plunged into a desperate gorge 
shut in by walls of bare rock eight hundred and nine hun- 
dred feet high. Here the native chief pointed out some 
wild oxen at the top of an almost inaccessible cliff, and a 
little further on, half-way up the mountain-side, there was 
a cave that our people told us was inhabited, although it 
seemed impossible to believe that any human being could 
clamber to it. About three miles from Chii-sung-dho the 
perpendicular cliffs gave way to slopes, where, though the 
hill-sides were still very steep, the road was somewhat 
better, and we could see ^ little more than a few square 
yards of heaven. 

The village of Tsaleh is 12,690 feet above the sea, and 
is said to be a very rainy place ; but, although it had rained 
all night, it was fortunately a fine morning. The muleteers 
had told us that, if wet, it would have been useless to start, 
as the mountain Tsaleh-La-ka was very difficult at all times, 
and quite impossible to pass in rain. 

The morning of the 4th of September felt very chilly, as, 
in order to prepare for an early start, we turned out into the 
keen air, and watched the people of the village wading about 
in the mud in their long leather coats, which, as I remarked 
to Mesny, probably lasted from the day of birth to the hour 
of death. 

' How can that be ? ' said he ; * do people never grow in 
this country ? ' 

In reply I pointed out a touching sight that was at that 
moment presented to our view. An old man was performing 
the morning toilet of his son, a boy of about nine years of 
age. A huge coat, big enough for the father, was thrust 
upon the child, the sleeves were turned back till they were 



232 IVA TER-PARTING. CH. 

not more than a foot or so too long, the skirts were then 
drawn up, and a girdle being tied round the child's waist it 
was tightened up till we expected to see the boy drop into 
two pieces. This process providing the usual substitute for 
pockets, the father drew a parcel about the shape and size 
of his head from his own capacious fold, and thrust it into 
the child's bosom, with several articles, amongst which there 
was of course a Pu-ku, or wooden bowl. Then the boy was 
ready for anything. As he grows bigger his pockets will 
become smaller, but otherwise his coat will fit him well for 
the rest of his life. 

From Tsaleh we continued our ascent of the stream, as 
menacing clouds were gathering amongst the mountain-tops. 
The valley was entirely without population, and we passed 
only one ruin before halting for breakfast. 

At first the road was fair, and through woods of pines, 
oaks, and poplars. 

There were long stretches of dead pines on one or two 
of the slopes, and the usual gooseberries, currants, and briars 
grew in the valley. We ascended gradually into the rain ; 
but it was curious weather, at one moment it was raining, 
the next the sun was shining, and soon after we would have 
both at the same time. Once there was a magnificent rain- 
bow down at our feet in the valley below, and the effect was 
very beautiful. After marching four miles we found our- 
selves amongst ragged peaks and slopes, broken into spires 
and pinnacles, where the road became very rocky, and we 
again entered the region of rhododendrons, and soon after 
we commenced the final zigzag that took us to the summit 
of Tsaleh- La-ka. There were a few small patches of snow 
at no great distance from us, but none on the road. The 
crest of this mountain, 15,788 feet above the sea, is the 
water-parting between the Lan-T'sang and Chin-Sha rivers. 
It marks the boundary between Yiin-Nan and Bat'ang, and 
here the jurisdiction of Chao and the native chief comes to 
an end. But Chao was afraid that the Lamas of A-tun-tzu, 
who are directly under the King of Tibet, and are very hostile 
to foreigners, might try to annoy us, and, being determined 



XII. CAMPING GROUND AT LUNG-ZUNG-NANG, 233 

to see us safely through all difficulties, he came with us to 
A-tun-tzu. 

There cannot be much disputing about boundaries here, 
and no one runs much danger of being cursed for removing 
his neighbour's landmark. There can hardly exist a sharper 
line of demarcation, for the top of the mountain is like the 
edge of a knife. 

We descended by an exceedingly bad zigzag for about 
half an hour, and then followed the stream to a little grassy 
opening, where we found our retainers near the remains of a 
hut, with a fire of sticks and a churn of buttered tea. The 
people here have a name for every opening in the forest, and 
this, being particularly small, rejoices in the remarkably long 
title of Jieh-kang-sung-doh. The rain held off for a little 
just as we arrived, so, seating ourselves on waterproofs on 
the grass, we breakfasted as well as circumstances would 
permit. The Tibetans do not seem to share in the supersti- 
tious dread of the Chinese for mountain passes— they sing 
and shout as they go up without any fear of evil conse- 
quences, and they regularly whistle tunes. The Chinese 
are unable to whistle, or, at all events, have never acquired 
the art. 

From here the road took us to our camping-ground, 
through a pine forest very like that on the western side of 
J'ra-la-ka. The spot was charming for a camp, or would 
have been but for the rain, which effectually deprives camp- 
life of its pleasures. A rivulet came down from the moun- 
tains through a dense forest of pines and oaks, and just at 
its junction with the main stream there were a few hundred 
yards of open space covered with grass and wild flowers, 
and, though there were not even the remains of a hut, it was 
called Lung-zung-nang. Tents had been brought by Chao, 
and we found the native chief in a good-sized marquee, in 
which he and twenty men were going to pass the night. 
The tent that had been brought for us was not ready, so we 
sat down for a while with the Bat'ang chief, until our modest 
residence was prepared. This was a tente d'abri^ of one 
thickness of cotton, ten feet by eight, with many holes in 
the sides, and nothing to close the front ; but as the rain 



234 THE BAMBOO SEEN AGAIN. CH. 

did not come down very heavily, and there was no wind, we 
were fairly water-tight all night. The servants and followers 
slept as best they could under trees, or elsewhere, and the 
place had probably never before seen so many horses and 
people encamped at once ; for altogether, with Chao and the 
chief, and their retainers and baggage, we numbered fully 
one hundred animals. We turned in early, and were lulled 
to sleep by the pattering of rain on the top of the tent, 
the chattering of the brook close beside us, and the more 
cheerful sounds of the crackling of numerous fires outside, 
where many picturesque groups of men, smoking, drinking, 
or sleeping, could be seen as the pine logs blazed up in the 
dark night. 

It was a long time before we could prevail upon any one 
to start in the morning, and our time was beguiled with 
fearful stories of the dangers of the road before us. At 
length, however, everything was ready, even Chin-Tai and 
his cooking things, and we continued our descent. My 
Ma-Fu was now a beautiful sight, as he marched ahead of 
me in the rain. He was six feet high, and always out of 
breath ; he wore a rough felt hat, with his plait twisted 
round it, a red serge coat, and trousers reaching to his knees. 
His legs and feet were bare, and he trudged along with his 
boots in his hand. A gun was slung at his back, and he 
was further armed with a pair of field-glasses and a couple 
of swords. He carried the remains of a Chinese umbrella 
over his head, but as there was little left beside the frame- 
work, \\ hardly seemed a useful article of equipment. 

We presently found a bamboo, a poor miserable thing, 
but we had not seen one since leaving Ta-Chien-Lu, and 
we hailed it as the first sign of a return to a warmer climate. 

Two and a quarter miles over a villainous road brought 
us to the entrance of the gorge of Dong, called by Cooper 
* Duncanson Gorge.' The river here runs between walls of 
rock, rising up almost vertically from the stream, whose bed 
is but a few yards wide ; the cliffs, however, are not alto- 
gether continuous, but are broken in places by exceedingly 
steep slopes clothed with dense foliage of pines and oaks, 
which seem to find sufficient nourishment in the crevices of 



XII. THE GORGE OF DONG, 235 

the almost perpendicular cliffs. The road led us amongst 
trees, many of which had just been cut down to render the 
path practicable for us ; but the branches of those remaining 
threatened every minute to knock us over, and made us 
stoop low over our horses' heads. We crossed and recrossed 
the torrent several times, and now and then the track was 
actually in the water. A huge sentinel rock marks the 
entrance to the gorge of Dong, which is two and a half miles 
long, and ends most suddenly in a little grassy opening, 
covered with trees, where the stream, as if weary of its 
headlong descent thus far, now ripples pleasantly and gently 
in a wide bed. After leaving the gorge the road is very 
fair, and, rising above the river, crosses a spur which divides 
it from another stream, and from this point the two rivers 
run for two and a quarter miles, nearly parallel to one 
another, only half a mile apart, and separated by a very 
steep and rocky ridge. A mile and a half beyond their 
junction the road is but a narrow track, eighteen or twenty- 
four inches wide, about two hundred feet above the stream, 
and it runs along the side of the hill, which is here at a slope 
of about 60°. 

All the ponies with one accord used to insist on walking 
at the extreme edge of the paths. At this point Chung-Erh's 
pony, putting his foot over the edge, lost his footing ; 
Chung-Erh was fortunately able to jump off, but the pony 
rolled down, and was lost to view among the bushes. A 
number of people clambered down to help it, but the poor 
brute was beyond all help, quite dead. 

Soon after this the stream was joined by another running 
also parallel to it, and separated by another steep and narrow 
ridge. It is interesting to notice that all the great rivers, the 
Chin-Sha, the Lan-Ts'ang, and the Lu-Chiang, run nearly 
north and south, separated at comparatively short distances 
from one another by steep and high ranges of mountains, 
and that here their tributaries partake of the same character. 
It is as if some violent convulsion of nature in ages gone by 
had (bracked and split up the surface of the country with 
huge rents all parallel to one another. 

No sooner had we started from Dong than the rain again 



236 A-TUN-TZU, CH. 

came down, and descended on us without intermission until 
we arrived at A-tun-tzu. 

We again mounted one of those steep and dreadful roads, 
which were now becoming somewhat wearisome, and for 
three hours we toiled over the accustomed rocks and stones 
to the summit of mountain Jo-ka-La, 12,389 feet above 
the sea, 3,389 feet above Dong. From this the road im- 
proved, the valley opened, leaving a little grassy space, where 
there were plenty of sheep and cattle, and further on there 
was a patch of cultivation, and a hut. Five-and-thirty 
minutes of very steep descent down a slippery zigzag brought 
us at length to the end of our first stage on the journey 
homewards, at the Chinese town of A-tun-tzu (Cooper's 
Atenze), which nestled in a little valley between high hills. 
We had made the journey very fairly — 170 miles in eight 
days, a performance that reflected great credit on Chao, who 
had made all the arrangements for us. 

Just outside the town the chief Lama came to meet us 
in a costume that would have put a beef-eater to shame ; he 
had a wonderful red garment, the mysteries of which I had 
not time to penetrate, as I was fully employed in observing 
and admiring his hat It can only be described by a sketch, 
and when it is added that it looked as if made of wood, and 
was gilt all over, a faint idea of the magnificence of the 
costume may be obtained. We visited him a day or two 
afterwards, and he wrote out the sacred ejaculation for us on 
a slip of paper. He told us that he was appointed by the 
spiritual authorities at Lassa, but was subject to the temporal 
rule of the second chief of Bat'ang. 

A-tun-tzii is a Chinese town, and nearly all the people in 
it are Chinese ; but, through long residence amongst Tibetans, 
they speak Tibetan better than their own language. They 
are not altogether Chinese in appearance, and the women 
were certainly better looking than any w^e had seen since 
leaving Ta-Chien-Lu. The immorality of the place is said 
to be very great, even worse than that of Bat'ang, the 
reputation of which town is about on a par with that of 
the worst in Eastern Europe. 

The prevalence of goitre in these districts is frightful. 



XII. WATER ANALYSIS, 237 

The Chinese attribute it to the salt ; but, whatever the cause, 
at least one third of the population are afflicted with this 
hideous disease ; the swellings in the throat of some of the 
people being of appalling dimensions. It is said that the 
Chinese are not so liable to this malady as the Tibetans, 
possibly because they have not lived here so long, possibly 
because they never drink cold water.^ 

The houses in A-tun-tzii are nearly all built in the form 
of a quadrangle, with the stables below the living-rooms, and 
with flat roofs ; but the evidences of Chinese civilisation are 
not wanting ; some of the walls are whitewashed, and tables 
and chairs can be obtained. 

As we were now almost out of Tibet I was very anxious 
to buy a prayer-cylinder ; but the people had a superstitious 
objection to parting with them, and it was difficult to prevail 
on any one to sell one. They had a curious superstition also 
about their wooden bowls ; they said that if they sold the 
bowls from which they had eaten to a foreigner, their country 
would fall into the hands of the nation whose representative 
had bought them. 

We paid our farewell visits of ceremony to Chao and the 
native chief, and I was very sorry to say good-bye to the 

^ At Deung-do-lin, where there was a beautiful stream of clear 
water, and where goitre was as prevalent as at A-tun-tzii, I procured 
a bottle of water. I believed at the time that it was drawn from an 
unpolluted source, but I am afraid that I was deceived. This water 
reached London in safety, and was minutely analysed by Mr. Bernard 
Dyer, F.C.S., &c., &c., who showed it to contain : — 

Grains per gallon 
Total solid matter in solution . . . .8*68 
Loss on ignition (chiefly organic matter) . . 3 '92 

Chlorine 0*42 

(Equal to chloride of sodium) .... 0*69 

Nitric acid 0*059 

Free (actual or saline) ammonia .... O'oyy 
Organic (albuminoid) ammonia . . . .0*119 
Oxygen, absorbed by oxydisable organic matter , 0*406 

After an elaborate, but by no means complimentary, description ot 
the water, and the effects that it would be likely to produce, Mr. Dyer 
concludes : — * In short, as far as I can judge, any peculiar properties 
this water may possess are to be attributed solely to the presence of 
a large quantity of organic filth.* An awful warning to future 
travellers to be careful whence they procure the water they destine for 
analysis. 



238 CEREMONIES OF ADIEU. CH. 

excellent Chinese magistrate, who had taken such good care 
of us. Our visits were returned with all the rites attendant 
on so solemn an occasion. At these visits, Chinese officials 
are always in full dress, with their official hats on. There 
are usually cakes and fruits on the table, but they are seldom 
offered, being more for show than anything else \ water- 
melon seeds of course there are, and these delicacies can 
seldom be resisted by a Chinaman, even under the most 
serious circumstances. Tea is always produced, but the 
visitor does not drink it until he takes his leave ; then he 
rises from his seat, and holding the cup in both hands, raises it 
to his forehead, lowering his head at the same time. He then 
sits down again, while the host, who has performed a similar 
ceremony, calls for the horses or chairs of his guests. Aftef 
this, the guest sips a little tea, rises, and walks to the door. 
When there, he clasps his hands, and, stooping, brings them 
to his knees ; he then straightens his legs, bows his head, 
and brings his clasped hands to his forehead, thus com- 
pleting the complicated movements necessary for making a 
Chinese bow. The host follows his guest into the outer 
court, where similar salutations are exchanged, the horse 
is mounted, or the chair entered. But the ceremonies are 
not yet complete, for now again the clasped hands are 
brought to the bent head ; after which, the rigours of 
Chinese etiquette having been complied with, the guest 
moves away. 

On our return I made Chin-Tai turn out all the provision 
boxes, the number of which had been increasing during the 
last three weeks instead of diminishing. It nearly broke 
his heart to part with some ancient hams and joints of beef 
that had accumulated in quantities sufficient to stock Noah's 
ark, but I succeeded in reducing by six the number of 
useless boxes we had been carrying. Still the muleteers 
declared that I must have six more animals than I ever had 
employed before, and the talking that ensued attracted the 
attention of most of the people in the town, who dropped in 
casually, one by one, to see what was going on. The chaos 
that reigned it seemed impossible to regulate ; but order, if 
not harmony, was at length attained, and the greater part of 



XII. PREVALENCE OF OPIUM-SMOKING. 239 

our baggage was sent off the day before we left ourselves, as 
there was said to be no halting-place between A-tun-tzu and 
Deung-do-lin. Of the distance no one could give us any 
more exact information than that when people went there 
they started very early and arrived very late, and that at this 
season of the year, as the days were short, it could only be 
done by riding very fast. 

As we had such vague ideas of the distance before us 
we were anxious to make an early start ; but we were now 
in Yiin-Nan, the province of China in which more opium is 
smoked than in any other, and in which it is proportionately 
difficult to move the people in the morning. There is a 
Chinese proverb to the effect that an opium-pipe is found in 
every house in the province of Kwei-Chou, but one in every 
room in Yun-Nan — which means that man and woman 
smoke opium universally. 

At length it was proclaimecj^that all was finished, and we 
thought we were really about to start, when some one dis- 
covered that the men wanted their breakfast. Who the men 
were it was impossible to say. I had noticed Huang- Fu for 
the last hour, alternately behind his pipe and a bowl of food. 
My Ma-Fu had been so busy with tsanba that he had left 
all the horses out in the rain. An enormous pan of rice 
that had been in the kitchen early in the morning was now 
all finished, and still the people wanted to eat. * Everything 
comes to those who know how to wait,' and we had by this 
time been sufficiently exercised in the virtue of patience to 
observe with some amount of philosophy the steady progress 
of the hands of our watches, although it was with some mis- 
givings that we saw those uncompromising machines indicate 
the hour of nine as we emerged from the doorway of the 
house into the chilly rain. As for the rain and fog, except 
for five minutes when the sun made believe he was going to 
' please again to be himself by breaking through the foul and 
ugly mist of vapour that did seem to strangle him,' rain fell 
and fog enveloped us incessantly the whole day — and so lei 
us have done with that subject, as the worthy Marco would 
say. ~ 




Tibeun Objc( 
of Buddha ; b, Scabbard ; c, Sw 
pouch ; /. Prayer^ylinder ; g. 
■viih precjous stones ; kt Rosaiy^ 



ltd ; d, linder boi nr 



CHAPTER XIII. 

REGION OF THE RIVER OF GOLDEN SAND. 

1. Sha-Ltt io Ta-Li-Fu. 
Sha-Lu—Big Tibttan Dog— City of CkiiH-Ch'uan-Chim—A Henpteked 
Warrior— Fait Words of tkt Cheu—Road tiraugi Populous Rice- 
laads — Laki Basins — Opium-smakiag — Damp and Dreary Asfecis 
— Tht Erh-Hai, or Lake of Ta-IA — Road along the Lake Shore — 
Arrival at Ta-Li-Fu— Ph-e Leguikher—Tke Plain of Ta- Li— Tht 
Mahometans — Visits — General Yang — Departure from Ta-Li. 

Travelling in heavy rain through the same region of 
forests, passes, grassy plains, and deep ravines, we reached 
Sha-Lu on the nth, Thechief of the place had ahugedog, 



CH. XIII. BIG TIBETAN DOG, 241 

kept in a cage on the top of the wall at the entrance. It 
was a very heavily built black-and-tan, the tan of a very 
good colour ; his coat was rather long, but smooth ; he had 
a bushy tail, smooth tan legs, and an enormous head that 
seemed out of proportion to the body, very much like that 
of a bloodhound in shape, with overhanging lips. His blood- 
shot eyes were very deep-set, and his ears were flat and 
drooping. He had tan spots over the eyes, and a tan spot 
on the breast. He measured four feet from the point of the 
nose to the root of the tail, and two feet ten inches in height 
at the shoulder. He was three years old, and was of the 
true Tibetan breed. 

From this village, ten days' march, during which two 
more high passes had to be surmounted, brought us fairly 
into the midst of the familiar rice-fields and a Chinese popu- 
lation at Chien-Ch'uan-Chou, the first walled city we had 
seen for months. 

The walls of the city and the gates were in good repair, 
and, if they suffered much, have been entirely restored since 
the Mahometan rebellion ; but the streets through which we 
passed were poor and wretched, with miserable houses. 
Here the old familiar Chinese sights again appeared— fruit 
stalls, eating-stalls, with the favourite bean-curd cake ; stalls 
where hats, bits of ribbon, and other little articles, dear to 
the housewife, were displayed in as tempting a manner as 
possible, and the usual crowd of inquisitive Chinese that 
soon gathered round us. 

The house we lodged in stood all by itself just beyond 
the east gate of the city, and was the sole remaining building 
outside the walls on any side. 

There was a great deal of fighting here during the 
Mahometan rebellion, and the city was taken and retaken 
several times. We asked the landlord what he did when 
the rebels were here. 

* Oh,' he said, * I kept quiet, and did nothing.' 

* Don't you believe it,' said his wife, who was standing at 
the top of the stairs. * He went over to the white flag ; like 
a fool, he was always fighting, and got wounded all over his 
body for his pains.' 

R 



342 FOUR WHITE STOCKINGS, CH. 

Of course there was no contradicting a lady, and the 
worthy fellow beat a retreat rather sheepishly, like many 
another brave man, more afraid of his wife's temper than of 
swords or bullets. 

Coolies were not wanting, as there was a whole army 
waiting in the courtyard. When everything had been 
packed some time, we asked why they did not take their 
loads and go. They seemed as much amused at the idea as 
it was possible for such miserable-looking people to be, and 
replied that they were waiting for the head-men, without 
whom they said they could do nothing. The head-men 
used to indulge in the abominable Yiin-Nan habits of 
opium-smoking all night and sleeping all the morning. 
When they eventually arrived, they looked at the luggage in 
a stupid sort of way, and then seemed to think they had 
done enough for that day ; the coolies in the mean while 
sitting placidly in the mud, in the listless manner of people 
too oppressed to care for anything. 

On the 24th we set off through the city, which confirmed 
our previous impression of poverty and general misery. 
We saw potatoes in the market for sale, but nothing else 
that attracted any attention. 

Mesny had hired a pony with four white stockings. 
Curiously enough the Chinese have a rhyme about horses 
with white stockings something similar to the old English 
one ; but although according to our theory one is harmless, 
two are doubtful, three suspicious, and four certainly bad, 
the Chinese say that with one or three the horse is all right, 
but that if he has two or four white stockings he is sure to 
be weak. 

Our road to-day was a most irritating one ; it was over a 
perfectly flat plain, but twisted and zigzagged about amongst 
the paddy-fields, first one way, then another, and it was 
impossible to say where it was going to for ten yards ahead. 
It had at one time been paved with blocks of stone, which, 
now all displaced, were lying about in a sea of mud and 
slush in a state of frightful confusion. But if the road was 
irritating, the ponies were far more so — they floundered 
about, and put their feet into every possible hole ; just when 



XIII. LAKE BASINS, 243 

they were wanted to move a little faster, on a bit of compara- 
tively good road, they would almost stop ; whenever I took 
out my note-book, mine invariably began to trot, would 
jump, put its foot with a splash into a mud hole, rush into 
the edge, if there was one, threaten to tear out my eyes with 
the thorns, and play any and every trick whereby it could 
spoil my writing, or bring my note-book to a greater state of 
decay than had already been caused by rough usage and 
the weather. 

We marched for eight miles over the plain, which 
supports an enormous population, for we passed villages at 
almost every quarter of a mile, many of them very large. 
The crop was nearly altogether rice ; but besides this there 
was a good deal of buckwheat, some beans, and a grain 
called by the Chinese Paidza ; it is something like rice, and, 
like it, grows in water. 

At the eastern side of the plain there is an extensive 
lake, into which the river runs. The geographical notions 
of the people were somewhat vague : they said that one 
stream that had a name came into the lake, and that another 
without a name flowed out, and they would not for a 
moment admit that they were the same river. 

The plain of Chien-Ch'uan-Chou is similar in structure 
to the Ch'^ng-Tii basin, and the plains of Ta-Li-Fu and 
I.ang-Ch'iung-Hsien. Surrounded on all sides by high hills, 
the central basin is fed by numerous streams, and drained 
by one river that rushes out through a narrow gorge. The 
city is now some distance from the shores of the lake ; but, 
as the geological formation is entirely a soft sandstone, k is 
evident that the outflowing river must continually deepen 
its channel, that the lake must formerly have stood at a 
much higher level, and that it will in course of time be 
altogether dry. 

We gained at length the plain of Lan-Ch*ung-Hsien, in 

its aspect and formation similar to the plain of Chien-Ch'uan- 

Chou. The road was, like the latitude and longitude of the 

amateur sailor, ' as before,' and remained so until we reached 

Niu-Chieh, where we found Huang- Fu smoking his pipe in 

the doorway of a deserted and tumble-down-looking place, 

R 2 



244 WRETCHEDNESS OF THE PEOPLE, CH. 

which proved to be the excise office. We mounted by a 
rickety staircase from the shed below to the upper floor. 
One long room, where a couple of wooden pillars indicated 
the imaginary lines that divided it into three equal portions, 
was furnished with a crazy bedstead, and ornamented with 
some big stones that were lying casually about amongst the 
usual dirt and filth. Here we took up our quarters, as the 
inhabitants of the only eligible house declined to admit us. 

It was no wonder, poor creatures ; they were accustomed 
to the visits of hungry officials, who take up their quarters 
uninvited, eat their food, destroy their furniture, and enforce 
their labour without payment ; and it was only natural for 
them to think that we should come and do likewise. 

Some of our baggage arrived in good time, and as the 
nead-men had a favourite trick of driving away the unfortu- 
nate carriers directly they had deposited their loads, in order 
that they might the more easily retain the whole of the 
wages of these 'miserable people, we ordered two or three of 
the coolies to remain in our room with the things they had 
brought. 

The people below us now formed numerous little camps, 
where they lighted fires on the ground, and our room was 
soon filled with the pungent smoke of the damp wood that 
came up in dense volumes through the yawning cracks 
between the floor boards. 

Later in the evening, when I walked to the other end of 
the room, I discovered that the two or three coolies we had 
ordered to remain had now become about fifty. They were 
crowded together, lying in heaps one on top of the other, 
and when the time came to make a clearance, it was with 
amazement that I watched them disentangle themselves and 
file off" one by one. Amongst others there was a woman 
with a baby on her back, which she had been carrying all 
day besides the load allotted to her. Descending into the 
place beneath was a matter of no small difficulty ; people 
were all huddled together, even on the stairs, and for a 
moment I could not help thinking of a London ball — but 
what a piteous travesty ! on the ground, men, women, 
children, and babies in arms, were so numerous that it was 



XiiL . POPULOUS RICE'LANDS. 24s 

almost impossible to walk without treading on them. Some 
were sleeping ; others smoking, or trying to dry their soaking 
clothes over the wood fires. The occasional flare of some 
dry splinter in the reeking atmosphere served but to make 
darkness visible, for the walls and ceiling were black with 
dirt and the smoke of years. It was one of the saddest 
scenes I ever saw. The poverty and misery of the people, 
and the hopeless state of almost brutishness in which they 
live, were painfully visible in the listless, expressionless faces, 
which were now and then ht up by some fitful flash that 
burst for a moment through the heavy smoke. I returned 
again to the upper room, and the trifling discomforts to 
myself were forgotten in the recollection of the grievous 
scene below. 

Some of our luggage did not arrive till the morning ; 
and from 'the window we watched the lazy Yiin-Nan people 
coming into nferket, for this was market-day in Niu-Chieh. 

The people bring all the materials necessary for erecting 
their booths with them — four pegs to drive into the ground, 
four upright bamboos, to which four others are attached 
round the top, a light bamboo mat for the roof, and small 
bamboos strung together for the table on which their wares 
are exposed. All this weighs scarcely a pound, and the shed 
is complete in a very few minutes. We were told that out 
of the ten thousand families living in the plain, ten thousand 
people came to the market here ; and although, as is usual 
in dealing with Chinese estimates, a divisor is certainly 
necessary, yet the very great number of large villages we 
passed on the road and saw on the plain, the people met at 
every step with baskets of pears, small red chilies, vegetables, 
and other things, showed that the population was enormous. 

As we penetrated further into Yiin-Nan, we did not find 
the lazy habits of the opium-smoking people improve, and 
the long and weary watching for coolies became a part of 
the day's proceedings. Then when the last odds and ends 
had been packed up in the last box, when even the cooking 
pots had been finally stowed a\Uf,Y, and when the servants, 
all ready, were sitting listlessly ^^ck-mg sunflower seeds or 
'gazing vacantly into space, I^^^^ fiH^ tk UnilTH Yfr^ 



\ 



244 WRETCHEDNESS OF THE PEOPLE, CH. 

which proved to be the excise office. We mounted by a 
rickety staircase from the shed below to the upper floor. 
One long room, where a couple of wooden pillars indicated 
the imaginary lines that divided it into three equal portions, 
was furnished with a crazy bedstead, and ornamented with 
some big stones that were lying casually about amongst the 
usual dirt and filth. Here we took up our quarters, as the 
inhabitants of the only eligible house declined to admit us. 

It was no wonder, poor creatureis ; they were accustomed 
to the visits of hungry officials, who take up their quarters 
uninvited, eat their food, destroy their furniture, and enforce 
their labour without payment ; and it was only natural for 
them to think that we should come and do likewise. 

Some of our baggage arrived in good time, and as the 
nead-men had a favourite trick of driving away the unfortu- 
nate carriers directly they had deposited their loads, in order 
that they might the more easily retain the whole of the 
wages of these 'miserable people, we ordered two or three of 
the coolies to remain in our room with the things they had 
brought. 

The people below us now formed numerous little camps, 
where they lighted fires on the ground, and our room was 
soon filled with the pungent smoke of the damp wood that 
came up in dense volumes through the yawning cracks 
between the floor boards. 

Later in the evening, when I walked to the other end of 
the room, I discovered that the two or three coolies we had 
ordered to remain had now become about fifty. They were 
crowded together, lying in heaps one on top of the other, 
and when the time came to make a clearance, it was with 
amazement that I watched them disentangle themselves and 
file off one by one. Amongst others there was a woman 
with a baby on her back, which she had been carrying all 
day besides the load allotted to her. Descending into the 
place beneath was a matter of no small difficulty ; people 
were all huddled together, even on the stairs, and for a 
moment I could not help thinking of a London ball — but 
what a piteous travesty ! on the ground, men, women, 
children, and babies in arms, were so numerous that it was 



xin. . POPULOUS RICE^LANDS. 245 

almost impossible to walk without treading on them. Some 
were sleeping ; others smoking, or trying to dry their soaking 
clothes over the wood fires. The occasional flare of some 
dry splinter in the reeking atmosphere served but to make 
darkness visible, for the walls and ceiling w^ere black with 
dirt and the smoke of years. It was one of the saddest 
scenes I ever saw. The poverty and misery of the people, 
and the hopeless state of almost brutishness in which they 
live, were painfully visible in the listless, expressionless faces, 
which were now and then lit up by some fitful flash that 
burst for a moment through the heavy smoke. I returned 
again to the upper room, and the trifling discomforts to 
myself were forgotten in the recollection of the grievous 
scene below. 

Some of our luggage did not arrive till the morning ; 
and from 'the window we watched the lazy Yiin-Nan people 
comi'ng into nferket, for this was market-day in Niu-Chieh. 

The people bring all the materials necessary for erecting 
their booths with them — four pegs to drive into the ground, 
four upright bamboos, to which four others are attached 
round the top, a light bamboo mat for the roof, and small 
bamboos strung together for the table on which their wares 
are exposed. All this weighs scarcely a pound, and the shed 
is complete in a very few minutes. We were told that out 
of the ten thousand families living in the plain, ten thousand 
people came to the market here ; and although, as is usual 
in dealing with Chinese estimates, a divisor is certainly 
necessary, yet the very great number of large villages we 
passed on the road and saw on the plain, the people met at 
every step with baskets of pears, small red chilies, vegetables, 
and other things, showed that the population was enormous. 

As we penetrated further into Yiin-Nan, we did not find 
the lazy habits of the opium -smoking people improve, and 
the long and weary watching for coolies became a part of 
the day's proceedings. Then when the last odds and ends 
had been packed up in the last box, when even the cooking 
pots had been finally stowed away, and when the servants, 
all ready, were sitting listlessly cracking sunflower seeds or 
gazing vacantly into space, I used to iind the hours very 



244 WRETCHEDNESS OF THE PEOPLE. CH. 

which proved to be the excise office. We mounted by a 
nckety staircase from the shed below to the upper floor. 
One long room, where a couple of wooden pillars indicated 
the imaginary lines that divided it into three equal portions, 
was furnished with a crazy bedstead, and ornamented with 
some big stones that were lying casually about amongst the 
usual dirt and filth. Here we took up our quarters, as the 
inhabitants of the only eligible house declined to admit us. 

It was no wonder, poor creatures ; they were accustomed 
to the visits of hungry officials, who take up their quarters 
uninvited, eat their food, destroy their furniture, and enforce 
their labour without payment ; and it was only natural for 
them to think that we should come and do likewise. 

Some of our baggage arrived in good time, and as the 
nead-men had a favourite trick of driving away the unfortu- 
nate carriers directly they had deposited their loads, in order 
that they might the more easily retain the whole of the 
wages of these 'miserable people, we ordered two or three of 
the coolies to remain in our room with the things they had 
brought. 

The people below us now formed numerous little camps, 
where they lighted fires on the ground, and our room was 
soon filled with the pungent smoke of the damp wood that 
came up in dense volumes through the yawning cracks 
between the floor boards. 

Later in the evening, when I walked to the other end of 
the room, I discovered that the two or three coolies we had 
ordered to remain had now become about fifty. They were 
crowded together, lying in heaps one on top of the other, 
and when the time came to make a clearance, it was with 
amazement that I watched them disentangle themselves and 
file off one by one. Amongst others there was a woman 
with a baby on her back, which she had been carrying all 
day besides the load allotted to her. Descending into the 
place beneath was a matter of no small difficulty ; people 
were all huddled together, even on the stairs, and for a 
moment I could not help thinking of a London ball — but 
what a piteous travesty ! on the ground, men, women, 
children, and babies in arms, were so numerous that it was 



XIII. . POPULOUS RICE^LANDS. 245 

almost impossible to walk without treading on them. Some 
were sleeping ; others smoking, or trying to dry their soaking 
clothes over the wood fires. The occasional flare of some 
dry splinter in the reeking atmosphere served but to make 
darkness visible,, for the walls and ceiling were black with 
dirt and the smoke of years. It was one of the saddest 
scenes I ever saw. The poverty and misery of the people, 
and the hopeless state of almost brutishness in which they 
live, were painfully visible in the listless, expressionless faces, 
which were now and then lit up by some fitful flash that 
burst for a moment through the heavy smoke. I returned 
again to the upper room, and the trifling discomforts to 
myself were forgotten in the recollection of the grievous 
scene below. 

Some of our luggage did not arrive till the morning ; 
and from 'the window we watched the lazy Yiin-Nan people 
comi'ng into nfarket, for this was market-day in Niu-Chieh. 

The people bring all the materials necessary for erecting 
their booths with them — four pegs to drive into the ground, 
four upright bamboos, to which four others are attached 
round the top, a light bamboo mat for the roof, and small 
bamboos strung together for the table on which their wares 
are exposed. All this weighs scarcely a pound, and the shed 
is complete in a very few minutes. We were told that out 
of the ten thousand families living in the plain, ten thousand 
people came to the market here ; and although, as is usual 
in dealing with Chinese estimates, a divisor is certainly 
necessary, yet the very great number of large villages we 
passed on the road and saw on the plain, the people met at 
every step with baskets of pears, small red chilies, vegetables, 
and other things, showed that the population was enormous. 

As we penetrated further into Yiin-Nan, we did not find 
the lazy habits of the opium-smoking people improve, and 
the long and weary watching for coolies became a part of 
the day's proceedings. Then when the last odds and ends 
had been packed up in the last box, when even the cooking 
pots had been finally stowed away, and when the servants, 
all ready, were sitting listlessly cracking sunflower seeds or 
gazing vacantly into space, I used to find the hours very 



246 HE A VY RAIN-FALL, CH. 

tedious. I was much diverted one morning by our host, 
who, standing on his doorstep, discoursed to an admiring 
audience on all the wonderful things the foreigners had and 
did. Amongst other things he told the people that each of 
us had a pen that we could carry in our pockets, and that 
we also had knives by which we filled them with ink. This 
was his way of describing the simple operation of .cutting a 
lead-pencil. After paying our hotel bill, I presented him 
with an empty wine bottle. I really think that of all I gave 
him he liked the empty bottle best ; he looked at it as 
fondly as a blue-china maniac would at an old bit of his 
crockery ; he handed it round, took out the cork, examined 
the label, and even held it up to his baby for admiration ; 
and the last that I saw of him, as I went out at the door, he 
was still toying with this precious gift. 

The rainfall this year had been unusually great, the 
country was frightfully wet, and the landscape as we splashed 
over the wet roads was dull and cheerless. Villages standing 
in the swamps, or surrounded by water, with two or three 
ruined houses in the outskirts ; people poling about in punts, 
or cormorant fishing ; a huge pelican flapping its great wings 
or floating motionless on the water ; the hills all shrouded 
in mists and rain clouds ; the road by the river-side bordered 
with trees, and stretching out straight to the front across the 
marsh until lost to view in the distant haze ; and the con- 
tinual drop-drop of the rain from a leaden sky, all combined 
to make the scene a very dreary one. 

In the upper parts of all these plains a good many trees 
of different kinds grow at the foot of the hills ; but the plains 
themselves, and the villages, are nearly altogether bare. 
Here the only trees were growing by the edge of the river, 
and marked its course amongst the rice-fields that covered 
the flat surface. Rice is the only crop, and this is grown 
wherever the water is not too deep. 

On the 27th the road, as well as the country, was nearly 
altogether under water, but the mud was less, and we could 
get on a little faster than usual ; and, passing over the lower 
end of a spur, the lake of Ta-Li lay spread before us. In 
fine weather it may be very beautiful, but its beauties* 



XIII. DAMP AND DREARY ASPECTS, 247 

were not apparent through the mists that shrouded every- 
thing. 

The lake of Ta-Li, or Erh-Hai, is about thirty miles 
long, and varies in width from about four to twelve miles ; 
its eastern shores seemed to be bounded by mountains, 
which run straight down to the edge of the water. On the 
western ^ide, down which we marched, a wide and very flat 
plain extends from the margin of the lake to the foot of the 
western mountains. This plain is almost entirely covered 
with rice ; but, owing to the late continual rains, the crop was 
entirely lost, and I subsequently saw the young rice, on 
which the ear had hardly formed, being sold in the streets 
of Ta-Li as fodder for cattle. It was sad, indeed, in this 
frightfully poverty-stricken land, to think that so large a 
population would lose nearly all they had to depend upon 
until the next crop. The poverty was awful, the result of 
the terrible ravages during the Mahometan rebellion. At 
almost every step the ruins of some cottage were passed, 
where, in the place of a peaceful family happily living under 
a comfortable roof, wild thorns, briars, and huge rank weeds 
flourished between the remains of the walls, on the tops of 
which great prickly pears flung up their spiny foliage. What 
a contrast to smiling Ssu-Ch'uan, where, as Richthofen 
remarks, everything betokens peace ! 

At this northern end of the lake stands Shang-Kuan 
(the Upper Barrier), a small village, but occupying a strong 
military position, fortified with a double wall.^ The direct 
road to Ta-Li-Fu runs along, or very near, the borders of 
the lake ; but, as this was altogether under water, we were 
obliged to follow an upper road. As I looked again upon 
the familiar junk, I could not help wishing for a comfortable 
steam launch, in which the journey to the other end could 
be done in little more than a couple of hours. The day 
will come, no doubt, not only for steamers, but also for 
railways ; and, judging from the crowds of coolies, mules, 

^ This is the Hiang-Kouan of Lieutenant Garnier's narrative ; 
passing which, with notable boldness and adroitness, he escaped from 
the grasp of the Mahometan King of Ta-Li. (See Voyage d' Exploration^ 
^c,y i. 515-516.) — K 



248 PREPARATION OF WARP, CH. 

and horses travelling in both directions, there can be little 
question that either one or the other would be a paying 
concern. 

Numbers of military students were flocking to the ex- 
aminations at Ta-Li-Fu, and I laughed to myself as I passed 
them by twos and threes, all carrying bows and arrows. 
The highest military officers have no more difficult subject 
than the stretching of a bow, or the lifting of a heavy weight, 
on which to satisfy the stern examiner. This in the days of 
breech-loaders, hundred-ton guns, and staff colleges ! 

Round some of the villages a good many of the people, 
men, women, and children, were engaged in stretching the 
cotton before weaving it. Two strong pegs are driven into 
the ground, about fifty feet apart ; between these, a double 
row of thin sticks, two or two and a half feet long, are driven 
upright into the ground, about three feet apart, the rows 
being separated by about a foot. In each hand the ope- 
rator carries a stick about two feet long ; at the lower end 
of each of these is a reel of cotton. He or she walks up and 
down quickly, passing both reels inside two of the sticks, 
outside the two next, inside the next, and so on to the end, 
where the cotton on both reels is passed round the strong 
peg. In all this process the hands are never crossed ; and, 
at a little distance, ten or twenty people, all walking back- 
wards and forwards, separating and bringing together what 
look like little white balls, have a most comical appearance. 
In one village the people were preparing indigo, but I saw 
none growing in the fields. I saw also here the first large 
bamboo ; there was but one, growing by itself, and it was 
only large in comparison with the little wild bamboo of the 
mountains, which is hardly larger than grass. 

The great pagoda that stands on a projecting spur out- 
side the city of Ta-Li-Fu is visible from a great distance, 
and long before the city is gained its height deceives the 
traveller into the belief that he has reached his journey's 
end. The longest lane, however, has a turning, and, dreary 
as were the last few miles of march in the pouring rain, over 
the poverty-stricken and half-ruined country, we at length 
rode up to the north gate of Ta-Li-Fu. 



XIII. LAKE AND MOUNTAINS OF TA-LI. 24^ 

It was closely barred, for the spirit of the waters is sup- 
posed to flee at the sight of the north gate shut against him. 

We entered at the east gate, and the interior of the city 
presented a sadder scene of desolation than the country 
round. The streets were wide, but half in ruins, and bore 
the same aspect of poverty that was everywhere apparent. 

Ta-Li-Fu is an ancient city, and was formerly a place of 
great importance, though now it is little better than a ruin. 
It is the Carajan of Marco Polo. 

It stands at the southern end of a basin, about thirty 
miles long, entirely enclosed by high mountains. This 
basin is similar in structure to the plains of Lang-Ch'iung- 
Hsien and Chien-Ch'uan-Chou, and, like them, is nearly 
altogether occupied by an extensive lake. 

Marco's description of the lake of Yiin-Nan may be per- 
fectly well applied to the lake of Ta-Li : * There is a lake in 
this country of a good hundred miles in compass, in which 
are found great quantities of the best fish in the world.' 

The fish were particularly commended to our notice, 
though we were told that there were no oysters in this lake, 
as there are said to be in that of Yiin-Nan. If the latter 
statement be true, it would illustrate Polo's account of 
another lake somewhere in these regions *in which are 
found pearls (which are white but not round).' 

Before the Mahometan rebellion the plain used to be 
well wooded, the villages were embowered amongst noble 
trees, and the landscape must have been as beautiful as any 
in China ; but now there is not a tree left standing in the 
length and breadth of the plain. 

The appellation of * Snowy Mountains * has popularly 
been given to the summits around Ta-Li-Fu ; but snow lies 
on them for only six or seven months in the year, and the 
altitude of the highest peak is in all probability not more 
than twelve or thirteen thousand feet. The line of perpetual 
snow in this latitude cannot be lower than between eighteen 
and nineteen thousand feet. 

Ta-Li-Fu lies at an altitude of 6,666 feet above the sea, 
and the climate is always pleasant ; but at the time of our 
visit a most unusual amount of rain had fallen, so much 



25© 



PkRE LEGUILCHER, CH. 



that that irrepressible person the oldest inhabitant had 
never recollected so wet a season. In the city we constantly 
heard the sound of falling houses, and Monsieur Leguilcher, 
the Provicaire, living at Ta-Li-Fu,^ told us that a fortnight 
previously, in the plain of Teng-Ch'uan-Chou, he had been 
going about in a boat over roads on which he had always, 
previously travelled on horseback. 

The people and officials were now all praying for fine 
weather ; and one morning during our stay, the Tao-Tai, in 
all the glory of official robes, headed a procession, which 
proceeded solemnly to the city walls, where they fired a 
gun at the sky, as a sign of anger and displeasure, by which 
they seriously believed they would frighten the rain god into 
a more kindly frame of mind. 

It was rather a remarkable fact that at the city of Yiin- 
Nan-Fu, only twelve days distant, there was a severe drought ; 
a fast was proclaimed, the south gates shut, and all the 
solemn rites, such as we had seen as we were leaving Ssii- 
Ch'uan, were being performed to obtain that rain which 
here had produced such disastrous effects. 

There are some quarries in the neighbourhood of Ta- 
Li-Fu, where very beautiful marbles are found, so curiously 
marked, and stained by nature with such diverse colours that, 
when cut into flat slabs, a landscape of mountains and trees 
appears on the face. Monsieur Leguilcher made me a present 
of a very rare specimen framed, and when hung up it might 
at a little distance easily be mistaken for a painting. 

There are now about three hundred villages in the plain 
of Ta-Li-Fu, the largest of which does not contain more 
than two or three hundred families, while before the re- 
bellion the population of the villages averaged seven or 
eight hundred families. In Ta-Li-Fu itself there are from 
two thousand five hundred to three thousand Chinese families, 
and one thousand five hundred to two thousand native 
families — for the Chinese are strangers here, though they 
outnumber the natives ; the latter have a great dislike to 
foreigners, amongst whom they include the Chinese. 

* It was Pere Leguilcher who joined the late Lieutenant Gamier in 
his daring journey to Ta-Li-Fu in 1868. — F. 



XIII. THE PLAIN OF TA-LL 251 

Over all the neighbourhood the ruin of the country 
occasioned by the rebellion of the Hui-Hui, or, as Europeans 
call them, Mahometans, is grievously apparent. This re- 
bellion lasted over many years, during which the most des- 
perate fighting took place in almost every town within fifty 
miles of Ta-Li-Fu, the great centre of the movement, and 
the seat of Tu-W^n-Hsiu, the so-called Sultan Suliman.* 
Towns and cities were taken and retaken by each side 
alternately, acts of frightful cruelty were perpetrated, and 
retaliations still more cruel followed. 

During all these scenes of war and bloodshed M. Le- 
guilcher remained in the province, and his life during this 
time would form a thrilling narrative of hardship and adven- 

* * The word Panthay has received such complete recognition as the 
national name of the Mahometan revolutionaries in Yiin-Nan that I fear 
it will be almost useless to assert that the term is utterly unknown in 
the country which was temporarily under the domination of Sultan 
Suliman, otherwise Tu-W6n-Hsiu. The rebels were and are known to 
themselves and to the Imperialists by the name of the Hui-Hui, or 
Hui-Tzu (Mahometans), the latter expression being slightly derogatory. 

* The name of ** Sultan," utterly foreign to the ordinary Chinese, 
was never applied to their ruler, except perhaps by the two or three 
hajjis among them. 

* The name ** Suliman " is equally unknown. The Mahometans of 
Yiin-Nan are precisely the same race as their Confucian or Buddhist 
countrymen ; and it is even doubtful if they were Mahometans, except 
so far as they professed an abhorrence for pork. They did not practise 
circumcision, though I am not sure if that rite is indispensable ; they 
did not observe the Sabbath, were unacquainted with the language of 
Islam, did not turn to Mecca in prayer, and professed none of the fire- 
and- sword spirit of propagandism. 

* That they were intelligent, courageous, honest, and liberal to 
strangers, is as certain as their ignorance of the Law and the Prophets. 
All honour to their good qualities, but let us cease to cite their short- 
lived rule as an instance of the " Great Mahometan Revival."' — Mr, 
Baber's Report— China, No. 3—1878. 

The term PanthS is that recently applied by the Burmese to the 
Yiin-Nan Mahometans. No one interested in the subject ever supposed 
it to be * a national name ' in use by the people themselves. Its origin 
is very uncertain ; Sir A. Phayre thinks it has nothing to do with 
Pathi^ the old Burmese word for Mahometans, which is probably 
a corruption of Parsi, Persian. The name Suliman was probably 
merely a formal style known only to the hajjis ; but it is used in the 
Arabic proclamation which was circulated in neighbouring states, 
and is mentioned by Dr. Anderson, who appears to have heard it 
at Momien. {Report on Expedition to Western ytman, 1871, p. 

ISO,)-K 



252 THE MAHOMETAN REBELLION, .CH. 

ture. Once he took refuge in a wood, where he built himself 
a hut of small trees ; after a time he discovered they were 
cinnamon trees, and he used to vary his diet by eating his 
house. 

At another time he had taken refuge in the mountains, 
with fifty or sixty Christian families. After a battle, a band 
of the defeated party came his way, and would have robbed 
or murdered them, but he' bought the good- will of the chief 
with an old pistol and ten percussion-caps. 

The Chinese always maintained that there were a num- 
ber of Europeans with the rebels ; but M. Leguilcher told us 
that, beyond a few people who came from Rangoon, and 
knew no words of any European language save Padre and 
Capitan^ there were no foreigners whatever with them. 

During the rebellion a horrible epidemic like the plague 
appeared, that first of all attacked the rats. These animals 
used to die about the houses for a few days, and then they 
would migrate in vast numbers from the towns into the 
fields. After this, the disease seized upon the miserable 
population, and carried off an enormous proportion of the 
people. 

Another fact worth recording noticed by M. Leguilcher 
was that, during the rebellion, when every one was in a state 
of anxiety, never knowing at any moment whether he might 
not have to fly for his life, the births amongst the Christians 
were not more than four or ^y^ per annum amongst one 
hundred and twenty families, the normal number being fifty 
or sixty. 

The Mahometan rebellion has been crushed ; but large 
numbers of Mahometans, who may be known by the white 
turbans which they wear, but who are as ignorant of the 
Koran as they are of the Talmud, still remain in the pro- 
vince. They are not less discontented than they were 
before the rebeUion ; all the elements of discord still exist, 
and a very small spark might rekindle a flame that would 
again cast its ghastly glare over all the horrors of a civil war. 

We had scarcely established ourselves after our dreary 
march at the wretched inn in Ta-Li-Fu, when M. Leguilcher 
sent us a present of some beef. This was very acceptable, 



XIII. VISITS, 253 

for the magistrates forbade beef to be killed, partly because 
the number of oxen in the district was so small that it 
barely sufficed for the agricultural necessities, and partly 
because there is almost universally amongst the Chinese 
a superstitious dislike to killing this animal. But in Ta-Li- 
Fu the pork-hating Mahometans found a way to provide 
themselves with meat, and M. Leguilcher was able now and 
then to obtain some portion of a slaughtered ox. Soon 
afterwards he came himself to welcome us to Ta-Li-Fu, and 
his friendliness and geniality were more like those of an old 
friend than the first words of a stranger. 

The next day we moved into our new abode, a sump- 
tuous apartment in an upper story, with a good reception- 
room on the ground floor, where we could receive official 
visits. When we were fairly settled down in our new hotel, 
we opened all our baggage, some of which had been shut for 
many days. The sight was awful ; some of the boxes were 
absolutely rotting, and the things inside them wet and 
mouldy. We set pans of charcoal about, and soon gave our 
room the appearance of a laundry, with all our clothes 
hanging from strings stretched from the walls. The state of 
confusion became chaotic, and when Monsieur Leguilcher 
came in to visit us, he had to pick his way amongst the 
damp clothes, boxes, and masses of wet and mouldering 
paper that were scattered pell-mell over the floor and on the 
tables, beds, and chairs. 

During our stay in Ta-Li-Fu it rained incessantly night 
and day, and we scarcely left the house, except to pay the 
necessary official visits. We found that, notwithstanding the 
crowds brought into the city for the examinations, we excited 
but little curiosity, scarcely any one following us in the 
streets. These, though wide, are very miserable in appear- 
ance, and the shops wretched ; but the city is very interest- 
ing, for people of every type are seen, and the women 
certainly are better looking than the generality of Chinese 
and aboriginal women. Some of those walking about in 
the mud in Ta-Li-Fu were quite fair, a great contrast to 
the very dark mountaineers amongst whom we had been 
travelling. 



254 GENERAL YANG, CH. 

We had omitted to study the Chinese almanac before 
starting on our round of calls, and found on arrival at the 
yamen of the Tao-Tai that it was one of those remarkable 
festivals on which the front gates are kept shut, and visitors 
are only received by the side door, and in unofficial 
costume ; we therefore deferred our visits until a more 
auspicious occasion, when we were received by his ex- 
cellency in all the dignity of full dress. We were regaled 
with cakes and sweets, wine that tasted like vinegar, and 
Havannah cigars. 

General Yang, the Ti-T'ai, is perhaps one of the most 
remarkable men in China. He is almost a hunchback, but 
so active that the people call him the * Monkey.' In the 
war, unlike most Chinese generals, who sit in their chairs in 
the rear, he was always on horseback under fire at the head 
of his men. One day when he came to visit us he walked 
over from his yamen, a course of action that would shock 
the sensitive minds of most Chinese officials. He has made 
himself so powerful and rich that he keeps two hundred 
soldiers at his own expense, and is more dreaded than loved 
by the Chinese Government, to whom, nevertheless, he is an 
excellent servant. 

Baber credits him with the reputation of a Barabbas and 
a Bluebeard. He is, undoubtedly, a man of very violent 
temper, but his faults have probably been exaggerated, for 
those who knew him best used to say that they did not 
think he would be likely to chop off the head of a legitimate 
wife, if he could get one. At the time of our visit to Ta-Li- 
Fu he was very anxious to get a well-educated wife from a 
good family ; he had a great mass of correspondence to 
conduct, and, afraid of treachery on the part of private 
secretaries, thought that a wife who could write his confi- 
dential despatches would be very useful. The good families, 
however, did not quite see it in the same light, and, not- 
withstanding the attractions of rank and fortune, Yang had 
not succeeded in forming a matrimonial alliance. 

We sent all our servants home from Ta-Li-Fu, except, 
the Peking boys. Ting-Ko, who had followed us unasked, 
was very sorry to leave, and begged to be taken on ; but 



XIII. DEPARTURE FROM TA-LI-FU, 255 

there would have been no possibility of sending him back to 
Ta-Chien-Lu from Bhamo, and so he went with Huang-Fu 
and his pipe to Ch'^ng-Tu. The Ma-Fus returned to 
Bat'ang, and I had the satisfaction of hearing many months 
afterwards that all had arrived in safety. 

During our stay at Ta-Li-Fu the rain had fallen without 
ceasing, and it was with much satisfaction that when I 
looked out of window (on the morning of the 4th of October, 
the date of our departure), I could see for the first time 
the lake of Ta-Li lying at the feet of the mountains, on 
which the first sprinkling of snow had fallen during the last 
few days. The sun shone in a clear sky, flecked here and 
there with fleecy clouds ; the deep blue water of the lake 
sparkled as its surface was rippled by a gentle breeze ; the 
morning was beautiful, and all nature seemed to rejoice in 
the pleasant change of weather. Out of all that remained 
of our stud, my grey was the only animal that was fit to take 
any further. I at first rode a hired pony, and my new Ma- 
Fu walked on in front leading the grey. Much impressed 
with his own importance as keeper of the stables to their 
* foreign excellencies,' he swelled with pride as he ordered 
every one we met to move aside ; if people were sitting 
harmlessly by the road, he made them stand up and salute ; 
and he was not satisfied unless all riders dismounted from their 
horses and paid proper respects. At last, as he was making 
us a perfect nuisance to all the passers-by, I was obliged to 
make him fall to the rear. 

At the end of the suburb we halted. It was time for 
Monsieur Leguilcher, who had ridden thus far with us, to 
return to his solitary abode. Those who have never travelled 
in distant lands can little understand the feeling with which 
one stranger meets a fellow wanderer from home — * A fellow 
feeling makes us wondrous kind ; ' and it was with no light 
heart that I bid adieu to our kind friend, for I could hardly 
venture to say * Au reimr ! ' 




^Yc3tc^l Chin< 



CHAPTER XIV. 

' AUGUSTUS 



1. ' The Land of the Geld Tilth.' 
Marco Polo's Cakes ofSalt—Paudty ofFresitit Traffic on Road— Devas- 
tated Country — Yang-Pi River — Chain Suspension-bridge — Per- 
versities of the Path—Tai-P'i«s-P'u~-Lofly Hamlet of Tou-fo- 
Shot) -Dearth of PopulaHon—Traies of War—Chestnut and Oak 
Woods— Descent to Plain of Yimg-P'ing-Hsien— The Town destroyed 
— Vieui of the Mekong or Ijin-T'sang River — Chain Bridge across it 
—Desperate Ascenl—Ta-Li-Shao—Pan-Ch'iao—Rice Macaroni- 
Folds Salt Loaves Again— ffis ' Vochan' and the ' Parlous Fight ' 
there—Yiing-Chang-Fu—A General en the March— A Quarrel 
Imminent, but the General is Drawn off—Stones and Beads Brought 
for Sale— Recent Plague on the Road, 

HsiA-KuAN is situated at the southern end of the lake, at 
the entrance to the gorge through which the river escapes, 
and through which the road from Burmah reaches Ta-Li-Fu. 



CH. XIV. MARCO POLO'S CAKES OF SALT. 257 

It is a poor place, half in ruins. The arch and brickwork 
of the southern gate had tumbled down with a good portion 
of the wall. These, however, formed a rather rough ramp, 
over which we rode to olir inn, where we dined off some 
mutton given us by General Yang, which was so good that 
we both declared the general's name should be Mutton, 
and not Willow. (The sound of the Chinese word Yang, 
which means Willow, is the same as the sound of another 
word Yang, meaning Sheep, though the written characters 
are quite different.) 

Before turning into bed we saw, as we believed, all the 
animals in the inn-yard, and comforted ourselves with the 
thought of an early start ; but even yet we had not fathomed 
the depth of the cunning of these wily people, for when it 
became light we discovered that, though all the baggage 
mules were safely in the place, there was not a single riding 
animal, and we came to the conclusion that even if we 
should lock them up with us in our room they would some- 
how disappear before the morning. 

The morning was beautifully fine, and as we stood at 
the window watching the sleepy people turn out and gradu- 
ally open their shops, I remarked to Mesny that the salt, 
instead of being in the usual great flat cakes about two or 
two and a half feet in diameter, was made in cylinders eight 
inches in diameter and nine inches high. 

* Yes,' he said, * they make them here in a sort of loaves,' 
unconsciously using almost the words of old Polo, who said 
the salt in Yiin-Nan was in pieces * as big as a twopenny 
loaf 1 

We followed the left bank of the river which drains the 
lake of Ta-Li. On the right bank a wall extended from the 
town of Hsia-Kuan to the entrance of the defile, where it 
ended in a blockhouse ; but the interior of the work, as well 
as the greater part of the length of the wall, is so thoroughly 
exposed to enfilade and plunging fire from the road on the 
opposite side, that it would be of very little use against a 
force led by a commander possessed of the average amount 
of common sense. 
' Ramusio's version ; see Yule*s Marco Polo, 2nd ed. vol, ii. p. 48. 

S 



258 PAUCITY OF TRAFFIC. CH. 

It was market day in Hsia-Kuan, and we met great 
numbers of coolies and people coming in, nearly all laden 
with walnuts and sticks for firewood. The people met 
during the hour from ten to eleven were counted, and out 
of a hundred and sixty-five foot-passengers, seventy-three 
were loaded with walnuts, forty-four carried sticks, and four- 
teen were bringing sacks, the contents of which were un- 
known, but which were probably walnuts. This hour was 
the most active, for afterwards we met but few people, and 
not more than fifty or sixty mules laden with opium and 
cotton. These last may be considered as representing the 
through traffic, and they came from Yung-Ch'ang. 

Most of the trade comes from Ava. One of our mule- 
teers, a black-moustached and whiskered Mahometan, had 
often traded thither, but had only once been to Bhamo. 
He said that there were forty marches from Ta-Li to Ava. 
Judging from what we saw, the through traffic on the road 
must be very small ; but good government at Ta-Li, and 
the abolition of all Lekin and other oppressive taxation, 
would no doubt open up the trade. 

The road generally was from a hundred to two hundred 
feet above the river, and very bad to boot The river was a 
roaring, rushing torrent, falling 1,400 feet in ten miles, with 
here and there a waterfall about ten or twelve feet high. 
The valley of the stream was very narrow, the hills generally 
running sheer down to the water ; but the lower slopes were 
well cultivated with buckwheat, rice, and a crop noticed 
before, called paidza. The valley in its palmy days must 
have been well populated ; but the towns and villages were 
now nearly all in ruins, and could contain but few inhabit-, 
ants. A little below the very small village of Shih-Ch'uan- 
P'u, a very unpleasant descent began, ending in a bridge 
made by laying long slabs of stone from the banks to a rock 
in the middle ; whilst, just below, the opening of a narrow 
glen gave a passing glimpse of a fine cascade, brimful after 
the recent rains. Here the walnut trees again appeared, but 
they now looked very autumnal j the leaves were very 
brown, and the nuts all plucked ; there were a few per- 
simmon trees, with fruit nearly ripe. Much of the rice was 



XIV. THE YANG-PI RIVER, 259 

nearly ready for cutting, and there were a few very fine large 
bamboos. 

The road was very bad, in one place altogether washed 
away, and we were obliged to make a cross-country expedi- 
tion over a field of buckwheat. Here, though the whole of 
the traffic was diverted through this field, scarcely any 
damage was done, all the animals following exactly in the 
same track. The Chinese, whether boys or men, never do 
wanton mischief, and in enlightened England a road sud- 
denly taken through a field of corn would hardly leave the 
farmer so unscathed as here. At this point we overtook 
Chin-Tai, who had been sent on ahead, and who had been 
taken down the other side of the river to a bridge, now 
washed away, and we went on together to the little village of 
Ho-Chiang-P'u, where we found comfortable, though rather 
rough, accommodation. 

We crossed the Yang-Pi river by an iron chain suspen- 
sion-bridge, of about forty yards span, with nine chains, 
which was remarkably stiff and steady for one of these con- 
structions ; and, leaving the river, we at once commenced a 
very steep and rather difficult ascent of about two thousand 
feet ; the road then improved. Another thousand feet brought 
us to the summit of Ch'ing-Shui-Shao, 8,233 ^^^^ above the 
sea, and we then descended one of the very worst bits of road 
we had encountered in our journey. It had once been 
paved with very large stones, now all misplaced, and the 
interstices filled with deep, stiff, sticky mud. Slippery 
banks at the sides, and holes hidden by mud and slush, 
made walking necessary for about a couple of miles from 
the top, after which a certain amount of improvement 
became apparent, and for the next few miles it was possible 
to ride. 

On the 7th there was no mountain on our way from 
T'ai-P'ing-P'u (the Peaceful Village), but the road, app|i- 
rently out of very wantonness, went up about nine hundred 
feet. 

The stream of Tai-P'ing-P'u, which is bounded on its 
right bank by a spur from the mountain Ch'ing-Shui-Shao, 
runs into the Shun- Pi river at a distance of about eight 

s 2 



26o 



PERVERSITIES OF THE PATH, CH. \ 



miles from T'ai-P'ing-P^u, and the Shun-Pi river is crossed 
about a quarter of a mile above the junction of the streams. 
Any ordinary person would imagine that the road would be 
taken somewhere near the edge of the water ; but he would 
be quite wrong. This eccentric path rises steadily nine 
hundred feet to the crest of the spur, and then by a very 
nasty zigzag goes back to the stream. At first we were un- 
able to suggest any other reason for this monstrous behaviour 
than that the road-makers were afraid that, by leaving a few 
level miles, men and animals travelling would get out of 
training for the succession of mountain ranges that must be 
crossed. At the top, however, we discovered an unexpected 
village, Tou-P'o-Shao, and it is for the sake of the two or 
three huts that compose it that all travellers have to march 
up the hill and down again. The morning was beautifully 
bright, and the scenery charming : fine rolling mountains in 
every direction, whose sides, by no means steep, were well 
wooded by small pines ; there were many open spaces, some 
cultivated and some covered with rich fine grass, which, 
after the recent rains, was of the brightest green ; and a huge 
range of mountains ahead promised us a hard day's work 
for the morrow. The sides of the valley were little culti- 
vated, and we did not pass a single hut until we reached 
the very crest of the ridge where Tou-P'o-Shao is perched. 
Whence the half-dozen people inhabiting it draw their 
supply of water it is difficult to say ; but there it is, situated 
in as lovely a spot as can well be conceived, and, from a 
point a short distance beyond, the Shun-Pi river can be seen 
flowing from the north. 

The next village of three or four houses, amongst the 
ruins of thirty or forty others, is three miles further on, at 
the bottom of a heartbreaking zigzag, and here a couple of 
• caravans were resting, one before undertaking the arduous 
2(^cent, and the other after having reached the level ground. 
The former was a train of fifty-six mules bringing cotton 
from Yung-Ch'ang, and the latter consisted of twenty-six 
mulqs laden with salt Besides these we met no one during 
the whole day, except a travelling official and ten or a 
dozen other people, although this was one of the favourable 



XIV. TAI-PING-PU, 261 

seasons for travelling on the great highroad from Bhamo to 
Ta-Li. 

The country is scarcely inhabited. Besides the two 
miserable villages already mentioned, there are but two solitary 
huts between T'ai-P'ing-Fu and Huang- Lien- Fu, a distance 
of ten miles, and these two villages themselves contain but 
few inhabitants. 

Huang- Lien-P'u is situated about a quarter of a mile up 
a small stream tributary to the Shun-Pi river. Here an 
unexpected treat awaited us, for one of our men-servants, 
whose permanent employment was that of chief baker to 
Monsieur Leguilcher, said that he could buy some leaven, 
and that, if we liked, he could bake us some bread. We did 
like very much ; but even the thoughts of this luxury in 
store for us were not sufficient to reconcile us to the smoky 
atmosphere of the room, which was not rendered more 
pleasant by the fumes that came in at the window from a 
house next door, where the family were roasting their annual 
supply of chilies. Savages have been smoked out of caves 
with a few grains of red pepper on a fire, and our experience 
of the chilies led us to sympathise with the savages. Even 
the Chinese cannot stand this, and they can stand most 
things ; in fact, it was so impossible, that our request to 
our next-door neighbours to desist was considered^ by no 
means an unreasonable one. 

On the 8th of October the road led us across the range of 
mountains that divides the basin of the Shun-Pi river from 
that of the river of Yung-P'ing. Both these streams and the 
range of mountains between them run nearly north and 
south. 

We ascended a very remarkable spur thrown out from 
this range, some seven miles long and scarcely a mile in 
breadth, with a deep gully on either side, in each of which 
a torrent was rushing down to the river of Shun-Pi. The 
formation was still the same red clay and sandstone ; but 
after the dry weather the road was good enough, except just 
at the end of the ascent of Mount T'ien-Ching-P'u, where 
there was the usual stiff zigzag. It is worthy of remark that 
in the sandstone districts the roads generally follow the 



262 DEARTH OF POPULATION, CH. 

crests of the ridges ; while in those countries where the 
geological formation is of the harder limestone or granite 
the roads invariably clamber up the bed of some torrent. 
The reason is obvious. In the sandstone the tops of the 
spurs are always more or less level, and offer an easy route, 
though the ascent to them is often very difficult. But 
amongst the limestone mountains the crests are torn into 
wild and ragged pinnacles ; they are sometimes almost as 
sharp as the edge of a knife, and, as routes, are utterly 
impracticable. 

The country was still almost uninhabited, and bore on 
its face sad traces of devastation. Long extents of slopes, 
laid out in terraces, once used for rice cultivation, but where 
now grasses and reeds were the only crops ; and ruined 
villages, where rank weeds and prickly pears usurped the 
place of smiling vegetable gardens, bore pitiful witness to 
the havoc of the * dogs of war.' At a distance of two miles 
from Huang- Lien-P'u a single hut with a patch of cultivation 
was the only sign of inhabitants, until a ruined village, Pai- 
T'u-P'u, was reached after another two and a half miles. 
Here, in the ruins that marked the site of a once flourishing 
village, where coarse grass and weeds grew amongst the few 
stones which indicated the positions of the houses burnt or 
sacked by one if not both parties during the rebellion, two 
or three huts had been rebuilt, and the busy Chinese 
occupants were hard at work reclaiming the soil from the 
weeds that overran it. 

The hill-sides were mostly covered with long but rather 
coarse grass, and woods of pines, oaks, and chestnuts, where 
pheasants were heard calling. In these regions, where the 
oaks and chestnuts grow close to and amongst one another, 
they seem to run into one another, and all sorts of varieties 
are seen that appear as if they were a cross between the two 
trees. First there is the bonct fide and unmistakable chest- 
nut, with the real chestnut leaf, and the nut encased in a 
thick husk covered with prickles ; then we see trees with a 
leaf almost the same but slightly approaching that of the 
oak, and with some few leaves more like an oak than a 
chestnut, till we arrive at the real and true oak with an 



XIV. DESCENT TO YUNG-FING-HSIEN. 263 

acorn and cup without any prickles. The fruit also varies 
from the chestnut to the acorn, some of the varieties being 
almost like the chestnut covered with prickles, and with 
only a little bit of the fruit appearing through the husk, 
while others bear fruit nearly like the acorn. 

The next hut was two miles further on, by a temple 
where there had at one time been two presiding deities or 
dignitaries, one at each side of the entrance ; one of these, 
however, had shared the fate of Dagon, and its place now 
knew it no more. 

After a long but not difficult ascent of eight miles, we 
found ourselves at length on the summit of the T'ien-Ching 
range, 8,140 feet above the sea, where a few wretched huts 
boast themselves a village, and glory in the name of T'ien- 
Ching-Fu. 

Here a man joined our party, who told us that some 
time ago both his father and mother had died, and that, 
finding himself without money to bury them with, he had 
sold himself to a firm of traders at Ava — for to a Chinaman 
there could hardly happen a more fearful evil than to be 
unable to give father or mother a proper interment. He 
had been to Ava once, but as the firm had now given up 
business, or become bankrupt, he was free, and he offered 
himself to us as a travelling companion. 

We passed a village of a few huts two miles further, but 
nothing else until we reached the fine plain of Yung-P'ing. 
The city of Yung-P'ing-Hsien was, we had understood, to 
have been our halting-place, but now the muleteers said that 
it was a little off the road, so we did not go there. 

We descended another spur from the western side of 
the same range, and soon the plain lay extended at our feet. 

We asked a man with us if the city was on a river, or 
a little off it. His reply was eminently characteristic of a 
Chinaman : * Oh,' he said, * the city wall is destroyed, and 
now there are only houses.' 

After a long conversation we prevailed upon him to say 
that the city was not on the river. Under these circum- 
stances we were not surprised to see it built on both banks 
of tTie stream. 



264 THE TOWN DESTROYED, CH. 

The road down-hill was very fair ; but when we reached 
the plain it was awful— in fact there was no road at all, and 
in rainy weather it would hardly be possible to cross either 
river or plain. There is little cultivation but rice, and here 
we saw the first rice harvest ; but again there were wide 
spaces of terraces which had not yet been recovered. The 
carcass of an old buffalo cow with a good many wounds in 
her body lay by the road-side, and near her were the remains 
of a calf ; and as Chin-Tai had seen a panther near the 
temple we had passed in the morning, there were probably 
a good many wild beasts about. 

The city of Yung-P'ing was entirely destroyed by the 
Mahometans during the rebellion, and not a single house 
was left standing. Now, although it still remains the pre- 
fectoral city, Ch'ii-Tung, which is on the high road, seems 
gradually to be ousting it from its position of commercial 
importance. There are already about two hundred families 
in Ch'ii-Tung, while Yung-P'ing itself can now boast of no 
more than three hundred. There are a great number of 
Mahometans at Ch'ii-Tung — as, indeed, there are all over 
the country ; they are easily recognised by their white 
turbans. They certainly seem sufficiently numerous tc 
render possible another outbreak of the deplorable rebellion 
that desolated this province. It would be a wise policy on 
this account for the Chinese Government to assist emigra- 
tion from Ssii-Ch'uan to Yiin-Nan. It would not only 
relieve the already over-populated province, and supply 
labour for the now waste lands in Yiin-Nan which cry out 
for hands to till them, but, by gradually increasing the 
number of orthodox Chinese, the population of the so-called 
Mahometans would be lessened, and the fear of future out- 
breaks be by degrees reduced to a mininum. 

From Ch'ii-Tung we ascended two thousand seven hun- 
dred feet to the summit of another mountain, called T'ien- 
Ching-P'u ; and the fact that we went up three thousand 
feet and down again the other side, was becoming almost as 
monotonous to write about as the perpetual ascents and 
descents were wearisome to perform. 

I found Chin-Tai at a poor inn, where he repeated his 



XIV. V/£W OF THE MEKONG, 265 

favourite phrase ^all have got nothing^ by which he meant 
that the kitchen arrangements were defective. So, while he 
went to find a better place, I sat down, and was able to note 
how the inquisitive Chinese were being gradually left behind. 
Here, in a large market town, although a good many people 
collected at the entrance to the inn, no one, not even a boy, 
passed the threshold, though I was sitting in a room some 
ten or fifteen yards back ; and as I walked to the next place 
I seemed to excite but little curiosity. There are so many 
foreigners here, border tribes, wandering Burmese, &c., that 
as we all, including Englishmen, pass current under the one 
term barbarian^ little notice is taken of a fresh specimen of 
the genus. 

The people here called us foreign Mahometans, as we 
never touched pork. The presence of a large Mahometan 
population always rendered it comparatively easy to buy 
beef ; and there were plenty of fat geese, so that we were 
never in any difficulty about food. 

We were now in the basin of the Lan-Ts'ang-Chiang, 
known lower down as the Mekong river ; but before reach- 
ing it we crossed a ridge about three hundred feet high. 
•The ascent was not very steep, but it was greasy enough to 
give our animals hard work. Here we met a train of forty- 
six mules carrying calico made in Yung-Ch'ang. When the 
summit was gained, we at length saw the much-thought-of 
and long-talked-about Lan-Ts'ang-Chiang rolling at our 
feet j for the river seems to maintain the character Cooper 
gives of it higher up, and though there is not here another 
* Hogg's Gorge,' yet the stream flows through desperately 
steep hills ; and down the side of one of these a zigzag led 
to the river, 1,400 feet^below the crest. It was a frightful bit 
of road, and had this been written at the bottom it would 
have been apostrophised in no measured terms ; but what 
followed was so much worse that there is no bad language 
^ to spare for this descent. 

The river, the bed of which is here 3,953 feet above the 
sea, is crossed by an excellent iron chain suspension-bridge, 
in very good repair, and very steady. The bridge, from the 
edge of one pier to that of the opposite one, is about fifty 



266 DESPERATE ASCENT. CH. 

yards long, supported on twelve chains below, and two above 
for hand-rails. The links are about one foot long of three- 
quarter-inch iron, and the chains are fastened at the ends 
with shackles. 

Now commenced our day's work, and a hard one it was. 
The road at first led along the side of the hill ; it had once 
been paved with great round stones, which now, half mis- 
placed, lay about, leaving great muddy chasms. At the end 
of this was a village ; and here the path left the river and 
went straight up a gorge, which, with a little poetic licence, 
might be said to be like the wall of a house. The muleteers 
had told us that we could never conceive the badness of the 
road, and they can hardly be accused of exaggeration. It 
was enough to break the heart of a millstone, not to speak 
of the unfortunate little ponies that carried our baggage or 
ourselves. We had to face it somehow, zigzag after zigzag, 
mile after mile of steps, sometimes a foot high, of round 
and slippery stones, and muddy bogs, into which the feet of 
the unfortunate animals would slip with a bang and splash 
the mire in all directions. But still, right overhead, the 
interminable track appeared ; and when at length an ascent 
of 2,300 feet brought us to the end of this desperate gorge, 
men and animals * knocked their heads ' each after his own 
fashion. 

From here the road ascended easily in a valley well 
cultivated with rice, which at this altitude, 6,270 feet, was 
not yet ready for harvesting. In itself the track was still 
tolerably bad, but as the gradient was easy, and there was 
none of those abominable staircases, it seemed like Macadam 
compared with what we had passed, and after a march of 
about four hours Chin-Tai's mule at fhe door of a house was 
a pleasant sight to men and animals ; and, notwithstanding 
the porridge, soldiers, servants, and Ma-Fu did full justice 
to sundry bowls of rice all ready for them. After this every 
one was in a good humour, and although our muleteers had 
made up their minds to stop here, as the people told us of a 
village five miles further on, we determined to take that bit 
off the morrow's journey. 

The country now improved in appearance very much. 



XIV. TA-LLSHAO. 267 

There was much more cultivation on the slopes, chiefly 
Indian com and buckwheat. The valleys between the hill- 
sides were covered, where possible, with rice ; there were no 
traces of former cultivation fallen into disuse, there were not 
the same number of ruins about the country, and the villages 
were far more numerous, not only in the valleys but on the 
mountains. The ranges of mountains that we had marched 
across had hitherto been almost unpopulated and unculti- 
vated, and it was only in the valleys of the rivers that people, 
villages, and crops had been seen. But now it was a plea- 
sant sight to see some snug houses nestled on the hill-side, 
or to watch a wreath of smoke curling up from the midst of 
some small wood high up above the road, showing that here 
at last everything was not given over to nature and wild 
beasts. 

On our way to Ta-Li-Shao, we passed a train of forty- 
seven animals laden with salt for Yung-Ch'ang. The ascent 
was gradual, and the road very fair. We found Ta-Li-Shao, 
a group of about half a dozen cottages, to be 7,412 feet 
above the sea. A loft in one of them was free from smoke, 
and civil and obliging people did their best to make us 
comfortable, after one of the most severe marches on this 
road of difficult ascents. 

It was raining again in the morning of the nth, and the 
appearance of the clouds promised us a wet day. Before 
starting, a man, from whom we were endeavouring to extract 
some scraps of information, told us that the road to Pan- 
Ch'iao was *a good and level one down hill,' a remark 
that made us inclined to ask if he had any relations in 
Ireland. 

We continued our ascent of the mountain, which was 
now very easy, only rising about four hundred feet in the 
couple of miles that took us to the final summit (7,795 feet 
above the sea), whence we overlooked the fine plain ot 
Yung-Ch'ang, The road was amongst fine, rolling, wooded 
mountains, with open cultivated spaces, and a fair sprinkling 
of villages ; and then commenced the descent of * the level 
road down hill' The first part was rather bad and steep, 
over exceedingly slippery stones, but after about two miles 



268 PAN-CH'IAO. CH. 

from the top it became really very good, descending easily, 
and not being particularly sticky. 

Pan-Ch'iao, where we halted for breakfast, is a large 
market town 5,692 feet above the sea, situated in the plain 
of Yung-Ch'ang, about a mile beyond the edge of the 
mountains. 

A new dish was set before us at this place, macaroni 
made of rice instead of wheaten flower ; it was round, and 
looked very much like our European macaroni, but thinner, 
and instead of being tubular was solid. The salt here was 
in moulds about six inches high, for which there can be no 
better simile than old Polo's twopenny loaves. The shape 
was something like the figure 3- Each was stamped, though 
m this case it was not the * Prince's mark ' that * was printed,' 
but a very ancient character, of which the signification is 
* happiness,' a way of wishing welfare to the purchaser. This 
salt comes from Min-Ching, in the magistracy of Yu-Lung- 
Chou. 

Pan-Ch'iao lies close to the left of the river which waters 
the valley of Yung-Ch'ang, a perfectly flat plain, about five 
or six miles wide, entirely devoted to rice cultivation. Here 
again we came across the traces of the war : ruins around 
the villages and towns, remains of fortified towers, and on 
the lower slopes of the mountains some terraces fallen into 
disuse. This part of the country, however, seems to be 
recovering itself rapidly, for all the small valleys where the 
streams ran into the plain were well cultivated. The position 
of this river was contested for three years by the two parties : 
the Mahometan rebels on the right bank, and the Im- 
perialists on the other, being all this time separated only by 
the width of the stream — about twenty or twenty-five yards. 
The Mahometans built strong towers on their bank of the 
river, and with the aid of these prevented the Imperial 
troops from crossing. It is very interesting to find that this 
plain, the scene of that 'great medley ' and ' dire and parlous 
fight,' ^ described by Polo, should in recent years again have 

* The old Venetian tells* us that in this dire and parlous fight, the 
King of Mien, like a wise king as he was, caused ail the castles that 
were on the elephants to ht ordered for battle, and that the horses of 



XIV. YUNG-CH'ANG-FU. 269 

been a position so hotly contested But how the valiant 
Nescradin ever managed to get two hundred elephants into 
China, unless there was some much better road than the one 
we had followed, must remain a mystery. 

The soldier in whom we fancied we had discovered some 
Celtic blood was a wag in his way, for he volunteered the 
information that the next bit of road to Yung- Chiang was a 
* twenty-cash bit ; ' for he said it was so bad that it wore out 
two pairs of straw sandals, each of which costs ten cash, and 
is supposed to see the wearer through the worst day's march. 
The same man told us that, in the year 1873, eight or nine 
foreigners had visited T'eng-Yiieh. He said that they 
bought all kinds of things, birds, insects, no matter what, 
and were in the habit of giving one rupee for a single 
specimen. The Chen-Tai of T'eng-Yiieh, hearing of this, 
imagined that they were simple folk being imposed upon by 
his wily countrymen, and he forbade his people to sell any 
more birds. No doubt the naturalists, whoever they may 
have been, would now be much amused if they could know 
why the supply suddenly stopped.^ 

The city of Yung-Ch'ang is a sad spectacle of ruin and 
desolation. It appeared as if the greater part of the space 
within the walls had once been well covered with buildings ; 
but now three quarters of it were vacant or under cultivation, 
for in many places crops of Indian com were growing where 
there had formerly been houses. Notwithstanding this, the 
portion that had been rebuilt seemed very prosperous, and 
there was an amount of elegance, if such a word may be 
applied, about the shops that had not been seen since 
leaving Ssu-Ch'uan ; the streets were very wide, and were 
full of well-dressed people, looking comfortable and well-to- 
do. Stalls at the side of the road were apparently driving a 
thriving business, and altogether there was an air of pros- 

the Tartars took such fright at the sight of the elephants that they 
could not be got to face the foe. Herodotus mentions that Cyrus in 
one of his battles used his camels to terrify the cavalry of the enemy, 
but with better fortune than waited on the wise King of Mien {Herod. 
i. 80). 

* This was, no doubt, a vague reminiscence of the Sladen Mission of 
1868. 



270 A GENERAL ON THE MARCH, CH. 

perity about it that was quite surprising. The restored 
portion was very small, but what there was in appearance 
far surpassed Ta-Li-Fu. 

We were lodged in a real and very good hotel, where we 
had a comfortable upper room free from smoke. The land- 
lord said that it cost him 3,000 taels to build ; and the fact 
that a man could find it worth while to lay out so large a sum 
shows that the place must be reviving. Indeed we found 
traders here from nearly every province. 

Some general on the march arrived in the town in the 
morning of the 12th. One of his officers in advance came 
to the hotel we occupied, and, finding us in the best rooms, 
cursed the landlord in a tone of voice that reverberated 
through our apartment. Not daring to attempt any ejection 
of ourselves, he made great but unsuccessful efforts to take 
possession of the rooms occupied by our servants and bag- 
gage. The general had by this time arrived himself, and 
sat in the yard of the inn in his sedan-chair. 

The news of the turmoil soon reached the ears of the 
magistrate, who sent a polite message to the general, asking 
him to find a lodging for himself elsewhere ; to which he 
gruffly made reply, that the magistrate had better find him 
a place if he expected him to leave the hotel where he was ; 
and his minions thereupon commenced to turn out the 
occupants of all the minor apartments. 

This was not very pleasant for us, for his soldiers, sharing 
the wrath of their commander^ would in all probability have 
picked some quarrel with our servants, or have contrived 
to rob us of something. Our apprehensions were shared by 
the magistrate, who reminded the general that he would be 
responsible if anything of that sort occurred. 

The general paid little heed to this warning, and ordered 
his goods to be unpacked, sitting, nevertheless, all the while 
in his sedan-chair, as he no doubt anticipated that the 
officials of the place would arrange matters somehow without 
the loss of dignity which he would have suffered by con- 
senting to move to another hotel. 

Many varieties of precious stones are found in the moun- 
tains in the neighbourhood of Yung-Ch'ang, and, besides 



XIV. STONES AND BEADS FOR SALE. 271 

this, the sacking of Ta-Li-Fu had thrown great quantities of 
jewellay into the hands of all sorts of people, some of whom 
had not the faintest idea of their value ; and continual visits 
were paid to us, and stones of every description offered for 
sale. A great deal of jade was brought in, some of it pro- 
bably native. This stone is very highly prized among Chinese 
of all classes, and officials usually wear a great thumb-ring 
made of it. One man brought a pair of earrings made of 
malachite, for which he asked a price that would have bought 
a table in Russia, where that stone is plentiful. 

Another brought some necklaces made of amber, some- 
thing like the Roumanian black amber, but more opaque, 
and of a lighter colour; it looked something like brown 
agate, and we were offered 108 beads for 40/. We offered 
13/., and if we had remained a few more days would doubt- 
less have compounded for 20/., but in China no satisfactory 
bargain can be struck in a short time. This was a good 
necklace ; all the beads were more or less similarly marked, 
and it would have been worth about 40/., or perhaps more, 
in Peking, where officials give high prices for good neck- 
laces. One hundred and eight is the regulation number, no 
one venturing to wear a necklace with one bead more or 
less.* 

A man brought in a stone about the size of a small nut, 
perfectly clear, without a flaw, and of a faint amethyst tinge ; 
this, no doubt, was crystal, or something even more valuable, 
and the man said that he had another much larger and better. 
We bade him fetch it, which he did ; he returned with a 
stopper of an old scent-bottle, and the drop from a European 
chandelier, both of which were valued at comparatively high 
prices. Our ventures in stones were not very extensive, 
for as the Chinese, like all Orientals, leave their gems uncut, 
it is impossible for any one but an expert to judge of their 
value. 

There are two roads from Yung-Ch'ang to Fang-Ma- 
Ch'ang. The main road, which does not pass over a 
mountain, is better than the other, but some miles longer. 

< See Marco PolOy 2nd ed. ii. 330-331. 



272 THE PLAGUE, CH. 

The main road, we were told, passes through the plain of 
Fu-Piau (P'u-P'iao of Baber), which had been entirely 
depopulated by an extraordinary disease, of which the 
symptoms were like those of the plague, and which had, 
during the months of August and September, carried off 
upwards of a thousand people. Our informant added that 
now there was no one left except a few poverty-stricken 
wretches, who could not afford to move. A traveller who 
was stopping at the same inn with us at Yung-Ch'ang, and 
who left with us for T'^ng-Yiieh, said that he had passed 
through the place in July ; that at that time there were 
scarcely any inhabitants left, and that the dead bodies were 
lying about unburied. Now he said that the disease had 
ceased at that place, and had moved in a southerly direction 
to Niu-Wa, where it was raging. To a Chinaman, the idea 
of leaving a body unburied is very dreadful, and it would 
only be the most dire necessity that would permit such an 
atrocity. This disease is said to attack people passing 
through the country as well as the residents. 

In describing the symptoms, the people said that a lump 
like a boil, about the size of half a small walnut, suddenly 
appeared on almost any part of the body ; there was abso- 
lutely no attendant pain, and twenty-four hours was the 
outside that a person could live after the appearance of this 
lump. 

Boccaccio thus describes some of the symptoms of the 
plague at Florence in 1348 : — 

' Here there appeared certain tumours in the groin or 
under the arm-pits, some as big as a small apple, others as 
an egg ; but they generally died the third day from the first 
appearance of the symptoms, without a fever or other bad 
circumstance attending.' 

From Defoe also may be gathered that the plague of 
London was somewhat similar ; but he was not himself an 
eye-witness of this terrible calamity, nor does he anywhere 
give a distinct account of the symptoms. 

The city of Yung-Ch'ang itself, about 5,645 feet above 
the sea, is healthy enough, although there is at certain times 
a little fever. 




CHAPTER XV. 



2. The Marchts of Ike Kingdam of Mien. 
Dtparture from Yung-CA'aag—Fang-Ma-Ch'an^— Pestiferous Valleyof 
the Lu-Ch'iang or Salwen River — Passage by Chain Bridge — Steep 
Ascent to ffo-Mu'Shu—Old Customof Wappenshecw' andWlilary 
Tests— The Lung-Chiang or SAw^-ii River— Salutes hy the iVay^A 
Celt for Salt— The City of Ting- Yiieh, or Momeitt— Things better 
managed in SsH-Ch'uan—The Chi-Fu Comieniion-^Nan-Tien— 
Reception by a Shan Lady — ffer Costume — First Burmese Priests 
— Change of Scenery^Passage of the Ta-ping River—First 
Burmese Pagoda— Lovely Scene near Chan-Ta—Chan-Ta [Sanda). 
and the Chief there-Oppressions of Chinese— Festival at Chan-Ta 
— Shan Pictures by the Way— Shan and Kakyen Figures— Road- 
side Scenes in Ta-ping Valley — Bamboos and Birds by the (faj- 
—Lying Litigants — T'ai-Fing-Chieh, or Kara-hotah — Reach 
Chinese Frontier.— Town of Man-YHn [' Manwyne 'j-Fisttfrom 
Notorious Li-Sieh-Tai — Treatment at Man-YUn — The Pa- 1 People 
— English Goods in Bazar—Letter of Welcome from Mr. Cooper^ 
Scene of the Murder of Augustus Margary — The Kakyen Country — 
A Shot at the Party ; only tentative— Safyen Huts-^MtddHngwith 
the spirits' Comer — Fire gel by Air-compresHon — Buffalo Beef— 



274 PESTIFEROUS VALLEY OF THE SALWEN, CH. 

Grand Forest Scenery — Bamboos and Potatoes — An Imprudent Halt 
to Cook— A Venture in the Forest — Pet Us from Ants and from Bullies 
— Would-be Leviers of Blackmail — Benighted — A Welcome Rencontre 
— Cooper s Messengers and Stores — A Burmese Po-i or Ballet — Em- 
bark on Bhamo River — The Irawadi Disappointing — Kindly Wel- 
come from English Agent at Bhamo — Alas, poor Cooper ! — Bhamo 
to Dover — The Journey Ended, 

The little market town of Fang-Ma-Ch'ang is one day's 
journey beyond Yung-Ch'ang, and lies at the head ol the 
descent to the pestiferous valley of the Salwen, or Lu- 
Chiang. Our muleteers were anxious to cross the dreaded 
river before the sun was hot ; and every one was, for once, 
ready at an early hour. We started amongst rounded un- 
dulating hills, but soon entered a valley, which we descended 
by an easy gradient until we could see the mysterious river 
at our feet. A few low clouds hung over the valley, and, as 
we stayed a few moments, we could not but be impressed 
with a scene connected with so many weird associations. 

Centuries had rolled by since Marco Polo spoke of the 
country * impossible to pass, the air in summer is so impure 
and bad ; and any foreigner attempting it would die for 
certain.' Already at Ta-Chien-Lu Monseigneur Chauveau, 
who had passed many years of his life in Yiin-Nan, had 
warned us of this pestiferous place, and had told us that, 
before the rebellion had destroyed every organisation in the 
province, it had been customary to keep a guard at certain 
place 3 on the road to prevent any one from attempting the 
passage during the unhealthy season. As we approached 
nearer and nearer, though the warnings were more frequent, 
the details of the story varied but little, and, incomprehen- 
sible though they appeared, we could not but give credence 
to the tales so oft repeated of the ' valley of the shadow of 
death.' 

As it lay at our feet all nature seemed to smile, and invite 
the tired traveller to stay and rest. But it was the smile ot 
the siren, for should a stranger venture there to pass the 
night, it would be with fever-stricken limbs that, when the 
morning broke, he would attempt the escalade of the sur- 
rounding heights. 



XV. FAVOURABLE TIME FOR CROSSING, 275 

Even in autumn, the most healthy season, it is with bated 
breath that passengers hurry across at a favourable moment ; 
and when the fiery rays of summer are darted on tha^t low- 
lying valley, even the acclimatised inhabitants flee the * in- 
fections that the sun sucks up,' and for months no living 
thing may venture there. 

It is during an alternation of rain and sun that the 
poison is most rife, and then they say a lurid copper- 
coloured vapour gradually folds the valley in its deadly 
embrace. 

But as we looked the sun rose higher and gradually 
dispersed the clouds, and we were assured that the moment 
could not be more favourable for crossing. 

The reasons for the extraordinary unhealthiness of the 
valley are not apparent ; for although it is 1,300 feet lower 
than the Lan-Ts'ang, and nearly 2,000 feet lower than the 
Lung-Chiang or Shw^-li river, yet it is still 2,600 feet above 
the sea. 



It was the finest-looking valley we had passed ; instead 
of being perfectly flat, like so many others, the ground slopes 
gently on both sides from the foot of the hills. 

This formation is very favourable for the terrace cultiva- 
tion, and here the rice harvest was well forward. 

There are a few small undulating hills in the bottom of 
the valley, which is bounded by mountains well wooded or 
covered with long grass. There are plenty of villages, with 
a good many trees round them, and the landscape is more 
varied than any we had seen for some time. 

From the rapidity of the river, and the undulating nature 



T 2 



276 STEEP ASCENT TO HO-MU-SHU, CH. 

of the ground, it might have been supposed that this district 
would be healthy enough ; but the secrets of the red miasma 
must remain hidden yet awhile in the recesses of the beau- 
tiful, but deadly, vale. 

The river is crossed by a chain suspension-bridge of two 
spans, the second span in a Hne parallel to the continuation 
of the first, but about four yards from it on the same level. 
This system is probably adopted for the greater facility given 
for tightening up the chains ; but it makes a mis-shapen affair 
of what would otherwise be a well-constructed bridge. The 
eastern span was about seventy-three and the western fifty- 
two yards long ; each span is supported on twelve or four- 
teen chains underneath, and two above, the links being of 
three-quarter-inch iron, one foot long. At the time of our 
visit it was in excellent repair, but the eastern span, destroyed 
by the Mahometans during the rebellion, had only recently 
been rebuilt. At the time of Baber's visit it was *in a 
dangerous state of dilapidation.' The stream was running 
rapidly below the eastern span, but the western was quite 
dry. 

We halted at Lu-Chiang-Pa, a little village about a 
quarter of a mile beyond the end of the bridge, and here, 
at 10.30 A.M., the thermometer marked 80° Fahr. Baber 
noticed the sultriness of this place, for on the 29th of April 
his thermometer registered 96® Fahr. 

On leaving this we went straight up the mountain by 
a very fairly paved but exceedingly steep road to Ho- 
Mu-Shu, 2,800 feet above the river, and 5,486 above the 
sea. 

Our lodging was a shed made of split bamboos, over 
which mud had been thrown in some places to fill up 
the interstices, and so exclude the wind and rain sufficiently 
to enable people to smoke their opium-pipes, without having 
their lamps put out by either one element or the other. 
There was a good thatched roof, and the hut was divided 
into three compartments by partitions of split bamboos, 
reaching not more than half-way up. My pony was lodged 
in one, we occupied the other two, and, as it was easy to 
see through the partitions, I could watch over my animal 



XV. THE WAPPENSHAW, 277 

whilst sitting writing. The weather, fortunately, was fine, 
sunshiny, and without wind, so we did not find our airy 
apartment in any way uncomfortable. 

The little village of Ho-Mu-Shu was more than crowded 
when we arrived. We occupied as much room as twenty or 
thirty Chinamen, and it appeared as if our fellow-travellers 
were obliged to take it in turns to go to bed, and cook their 
provisions for the morrow ; for we were kept awake all night 
by their lively conversations and culinary operations, every- 
thing that was going on being seen and heard quite plainly 
through the wickerwork partitions of the rooms. The other 
guests were mostly candidates on their way to the military 
examinations at Yung-Ch'ang. Upwards of one thousand 
present themselves for examination every year from the 
T'eng-Yiieh district. If they pass they gain a certain social 
position in their town or village, and are eligible to serve in 
the capacity of petty municipal officers. Few of them have 
any idea of becoming soldiers, but pass the examination for 
the sake of the importance they thereby obtain. It seems 
at first somewhat inconsistent that the Chinese, who usually 
hold all military officers more or less in contempt, should 
offer advantages to the men who pass military examinations, 
which are tests of physical strength only. But it is the old 
custom handed down from generations. In days of yore, 
and of much hard fighting, when the sword, bow and arrow, 
and the spear were the ordinary weapons, it required stout, 
skilful, lusty fellows to wield them well ; so the Government 
estabhshed these athletic sports, as they might well be 
called, at which the prizes were social positions amongst 
the people, and were well worth striving for. So everywhere 
military exercises became common, nearly every one practised 
them, and thus the State had always ready-made soldiers 
that they could call on when required The old custom 
still survives, though the reason, in its full force, no longer 
exists. 

The Lung-Chiang ^ is crossed by another very good iron 
chain suspension-bridge in one span of about fifty yardsj 

^ Lung-Chiang is the Chinese name of the Irawadi's tributary, called 
by the Burmese Shw^-li. — y. 



278 THE LUNG-CHIANG OR SHWt-LI RIVER, CH. 

supported on eleven chains below, with two more above. 
Both this river and the Lu-Chiang were very low, but when 
they are full a vast body of water must flow down them. 
The Lung-Chiang is the more rapid of the two, but its bed 
is much higher above the sea level — 4,502 feet. 

The road from the bridge ascended gently through rice- 
fields to Kan-Lan-Chan, where we were saluted for the third 
time by three soldiers in charge of a Pah-Tsung, who sent 
and apologised for not heading his army, as he did not 
expect us so soon, and was not dressed. The number of 
times that we were saluted during the day must have been 
a serious expense to his Celestial Majesty, who pays for the 
powder. At Tai-P'ing-P'u I was some distance ahead, and 
as I approached the village three soldiers fired off a musket 
apiece, went down on their knees to the ' Imperial Com- 
missioners,' as they were pleased to call us, and repeated 
the formula usual on these occasions : — 

* Welcome, Great Excellency ! The men of Tai-P'ing- 
P'u have come out to salute you.' 

This they did in a droning, chanting way, that sounded 
like the 'responses' in a church where the parson is short 
of a congregation. 

Mesny arrived about half an hour afterwards, but his 
salute was reduced by one gun, for one of the dirty old 
matchlocks spluttered for a minute or so, like an indifferent 
squib of amateur manufacture, and gradually burnt itself 
out without any report. But in these parts a few guns more 
or less in a salute are not of much moment. 

In the afternoon some soldiers at a village, and some 
more at the Lung- Chiang Bridge, burnt gunpowder for us. 
One lot were rather put out • because a little boy who had 
brought up a matchlock from the last place arrived too late 
to have it loaded ready, and there was an awkward pause 
between the second and third guns. As far as I was con- 
cerned, the dignity of the thing was quite spoiled by the 
behaviour of the pony I was riding, who always shied away 
from the soldiers at the critical moment. My other mis- 
chievous grey, too, would insist on contributing to my dis- 
comfiture by intruding himself between me and the army-^ 



XV. A 'CELT FOR SALE, 279 

rushing up against me, and knocking me completely out of 
time, or breaking through the ranks (a single rank of three), 
with a snort and a toss of the heels. The white pony was 
always in mischief, if he could find any to get into. If he 
could leave the road and wander away into the forest, he 
would — especially if he saw another horse or two likely to 
follow him. Nothing pleased him better than to jump 
violently into a mud-hole just when some one was in a posi- 
tion to be splashed all over. If he saw the pony I was 
riding balancing itself on some narrow or slippery stone, 
where there was barely room for one foot, that was the 
moment of all others that he chose for running me down 
and knocking me, with perhaps a drop of a couple of feet or 
so, into the bog. 

A man came up in the evening with a * celt,' which may 
or may not have been genuine. It looked to me quite new, 
though we wondered who the antiquarians could be who 
made it worth while for any one in these parts to fabricate 
relics of the stone age ; ^ but, since a certain occasion on 
which I was astonished by the offer of sham Roman coins 
near Damghan in Persia, I have always been prepared to 
find false antiquities in the most unlikely spots. 

On the 17 th the road was very good for a change, and 
there was a generally easy ascent amongst undulating hills 
with but little wood on them. Now and then we passed 
through a deep lane cut in the soft sandstone, the banks at 
each side covered with ferns, grass, creepers, and shrubs or 
small trees, that brought to mind many a lane in Surrey or 
Kent Then the road would emerge into a downy country, 
where in a hollow the margin of some small pond would be 
lined with rushes, reeds, and ferns, now turning yellow and 
red — the very place for a duck, if the whole country had not 

' Baber explains the discovery of a copper knife and a * celt ' at the 
fair in Ta-Li-Fu. He says : * The knife is undoubtedly genuine ; the 
celt— called locally, and, indeed, all the world over, "thunder stone" 
(lei-ta-shih) — bears traces of sharpening on the axe-edge, and is well 
adapted for use ; but as these objects are now employed as charms, on 
account of their supposed supernatural origin and properties, and as 
there is a brisk demand for them, it is difficult to satisfy oneself of their 
authenticity.'— (/: 0. Report, China, ^o, 3, 1878.) 



28o r£NG-YUEH, OR MOMEIN. CH. 

been disturbed by a train of eighty or a hundred mules 
laden with salt, which had passed just before, on their way, 
like ourselves, to T'eng-Yiieh. 

We wound along, now up and now down, but steadily 
rising, till we reached Ch'in-T'sai-T'ang, where soldiers turned 
out as usual to salute. I was walking on ahead, alone, but 
just at this moment Chung-Erh galloped up and passed me, 
anxious to be ready to receive me in proper style at the door 
of the hut. The soldiers, never for a moment imagining 
that either of their excellencies would be on foot, mistook 
Chung-Erh for one of them, and as he passed bent one knee, 
and, much to our diversion, gravely informed him that * the 
men of Ch'in-Ts'ai-Tang had come out to salute him.' 

We had already mounted about two thousand feet from 
Kan-Lan-Chan, and another five hundred feet brought us to 
the summit of Mount Urh-T'ai-P'o, whence we descended 
two thousand feet by a very fair road to the city of T'eng- 
Yiieh, or Momein, situated at the head waters of the Ta- 
Ying river, in a perfectly flat and treeless plain, some five 
miles broad and long. This was entirely covered with rice- 
fields, where the crop was being harvested, and was bounded 
on all sides by uncultivated grassy slopes, from which every 
trace of trees had disappeared. 

The Chen-Tai paid us a visit in the morning of the i8th, 
apparently for the purpose of frightening us. He told 
us that in the year 1876 the King of Burmah had asked 
the Chinese Government to send some troops across the 
frontier, and put down some tribes who were giving trouble. 
Our visitor had been in command, and had not succeeded 
in his mission without much hard fighting and a great deal 
of sickness — for the campaign had been carried out during 
the unhealthy season. The King of Burmah had paid the 
whole expenses of the expedition, and had asked for and 
obtained a loan of three hundred soldiers after the main 
body had returned to China. 

The Chen-Tai told us that this body of men had just 
been disbanded, on the demand of the British Government ; ^ 

' The British Government, of course, had had nothing to do with 
the matter. 



XV. THE CHI-FU CONVENTION. 281 

that they were roving over the country in lawless bands ; 
that travelling was very dangerous ; and that he could not be 
responsible for our safety unless we would give him time to 
recall these men, and get them out of the way. He also 
said that the governor-general of Yiin-Nan intended to 
raise three million taels to work the mines in the province^ 
under the superintendence of • Europeans. 

The mines of Yiin-Nan no doubt are exceedingly rich ; 
but before they can be made to pay, communications must 
be improved, and the country better governed. It struck 
us very forcibly that the government of Ssii-Ch'uan was far 
better than that of Yiin-Nan. In Ssii-Ch'uan the officials 
were invariably more than attentive, and it was easy to see 
that their orders were promptly and efficiently carried out. 
The difference was apparent the very day we crossed the 
boundary into Yiin-Nan. The Margary proclamation, which 
had been universally posted in Ssii-Ch'uan, was rarely seen ; 
and although the officials were almost always civil and 
polite, there was a marked difference in our treatment in 
the two provinces. It must be said that the higher magis- 
trates seemed to pay us most attention ; but their orders 
were not carried out by the petty officials with the alacrity 
and regularity always observed in Ssii-Ch'uan. It happened 
on more than one occasion that despatches sent on from 
the prefectoral city before our departure did not reach their 
destination until after our arrival ; and although these are 
trivial matters they serve to compare the government of the 
two provinces. 

On the whole, there can be little doubt that the central 
Government of Peking wields a potent sway even in these 
distant provinces ; it is due to the Chi-Fu Convention that 
Englishmen may travel in comfort throughout the vast 
empire ; and this one fact alone will stamp the term of 
office of Sir Thomas Wade as one memorable in the annals 
of our dealings with the Chinese Government ; and it 
is to be hoped and expected that it will do much to bring 
about that intercourse with foreigners which is the one and 
only means by which cordial and comprehensible relations can 
be estabhshed between the Chinese and European nations. 



282 A RESERVOIR-ROAD. CH. 

The civil official of Man-Yiin, who was also staying in 
the hotel, paid us a visit, and told us the Chen-Tai's story 
with considerable variations. He said that thirty soldiers, 
not three hundred, had been lent to the King of Burmah, 
but that the officer in command was of so bad a character 
that the king had disbanded the company ; that the officer 
had been disgraced by the Ghinese Government ; that he 
now did not dare to return to Chinese territory, and was 
roving the country, committing depredations, and robbing 
whomsoever fell in his way. 

The Man-Yiin magistrate and another military officer 
came again in the evening to endeavour to induce us to wait 
a few days ; and now the former said that the disbanded 
soldiers numbered one hundred ; that they were very danger- 
ous ; that in any case we should be compelled to wait at 
Man-Yiin until he could join us ; and that we had much 
better remain at T'eng-Yiieh-T'ing, where the quarters were 
comfortable. To all these blandishments we lent a deaf ear ; 
and, ultimately, the magistrate sent his steward and a lot of 
people with us, amongst them two Cantonese, to help us 
on the road, and placed his residence at Man-Yiin at our 
disposal. 

The road down the long valley was good and level, but 
the inhabitants have a most eccentric custom of using it, not 
only as an aqueduct, but as a reservoir. 

The numerous streams that flow out from the mountains 
are turned on to the road wherever it is hollowed out between 
banks ; little dams, about a foot or eighteen inches high, are 
made across the track to keep in the water ; and thus the 
adjacent rice-fields can be flooded when required. 

We met thirty loads of cotton, but, besides these, there 
were few people about. We saw some men thrashing with 
flails made of bamboo, one in each hand ; but everything 
was still thoroughly Chinese, and there were no signs of 
the manners and customs of the Burmese, or of the wild 
mountain tribes between Man-Yiin and Bhamo, except the 
turbans of the women, which were built up like towers on 
their heads. 

We passed through the walled town of Nan-Tien, and 



XV. RECEPTION BY A SHAN LADY, 283 

about two miles further found the house of the native chief, 
or Tu-Sze, in the small village of Che-Tao-Ch'eng. There 
appeared not to be enough soldiers to fire a salute with 
matchlocks ; but, instead of this, three iron guns, about eight 
inches long and with a calibre of about an inch, were 
planted upright in the ground, and were touched off by a 
man with a bit of lighted paper at the end of a bamboo, 
quite in the style of a professed pyrotechnist ; and what they 
wanted in dignity was made up for by the loudness of the 
report. 

The native chief has the rank of a Yu-Chi, and wears 
the clear blue button, as the English always call it, though 
a more inappropriate term could hardly have been de- 
vised. The French call it globule^ just what it is — a globule 
a little more than an inch in diameter, which is worn on 
the official hat. Strangely enough, there is no regulation 
size for this, though for almost every part of a Chinaman's 
dress there are stern rules and regulations ; and every 
man, official or non-official, must shave his head and 
wear a plait, for if he leaves his hair it is a sign that he is a 
rebel. 

The * Ugly Chief of Homely Virtues,* who entertained 
Margary, had died of grief for the loss of all his fortune 
during the rebellion ; the boy of whom Margary speaks was 
not yet of age, and the honours of the house were done by 
an old relative holding the Chinese rank of Pa-Tsung. 

The circular about us sent from T^eng-Yiieh-T'ing fiy^ 
days before, arrived about an hour after us ; but it was not 
wanted, as the family of the chief were quite ready to dis- 
pense their hospitality without it. The way in which these 
despatches used always to arrive just in time to be too late 
was both amusing and instructive ; and I thought with the 
* Sentimental Traveller' that *they manage these things 
better in ' Ssu-Ch'uan. 

The mother of the former chief, and the grandmother of 
the children (two sons — the eldest fifteen— and three girls), 
looked after the house, and invited us into her rooms after 
dinner to drink tea. 

She wore a white jacket, with sleeves turned up, and a 



284 CHANGE OF SCENERY. CH. 

good deal of embroidery in gold on the cuffs ; this was 
fastened at the throat by a brooch with twelve (or fifteen, I 
am not certain which) different coloured stones, set in three 
rows, like the pictures of the breast-plate of the Jewish high 
priests. Silver bracelets adorned her wrists, and she wore 
white trousers with some red stripes ; but the room was 
so dark it was impossible to make out the details of her 
costume. A majestic turban rose to a height of eighteen 
inches above her head, and bulged out about half-way up, 
as though swelling with honest pride at its exalted position. 

She introduced her two sons, and told us that their 
territory stretched for a length of thirty miles by the riverT 
side, and extended back from it for a distance of sixty miles. 

She evidently entertained a sincere regard for Margary, 
and told us that he had given a sword and a microscope to 
the late chief ; but she did not mention the * fine pair of 
scissors ' which he gave to the * amiable spouse.' What has 
become of her we did not learn. The language of these 
people is alphabetic, with nineteen letters, and they write as 
we do from left to right 

On the morning of the 21st, as we rode out of the gates, 
where a couple of Burmese priests were standing about in 
their yellow garments— the first signs of a change of country 
— three more terrific explosions startled our animals. The 
old Pa-Tsung had promised us sixty soldiers as a guard of 
honour, but only two sorry-looking fellows turned up. The 
morning was fine, but it came on to rain at about nine 
o'clock, and rained all day ; a perfect deluge falling in the 
afternoon. 

As we advanced, the scenery changed. Hitherto the hills 
had been grass-covered ; now trees appeared, many of them 
of a kind not seen before, and the vegetation was almost 
tropical in appearance ; creepers with huge leaves trailing up 
the trees, plantains growing here and there, and an occasional 
banyan, all indicated a change of climate. 

The road again was bad : sometimes at the river level, 
and strewn with huge stones ; then it went up a ravine and 
down again ; here it was feet deep in mud, or, as before, turned 
into a series of reservoirs. We found some sheds of matting 



XV. THE PEKING BOYS' COWARDICE. 285 

by the road-side, where we sat down to discuss our sand- 
wiches ; but presently some people from a neighbouring 
village appeared and took possession. These proved to be 
the proprietors ; they had brought with them great baskets 
of hot cooked rice, and some of the little dishes that always 
accompany it, and soon they were doing a fine trade. Their 
shanties are midway between two towns, and there is hardly 
any other halting-place on the road. People going back- 
wards and forwards generally start much about the same 
time, so the owners of these huts know pretty well when to 
expect the * up and down trains,' and come from their village 
to feed the hungry passengers. The natives here are very 
fond of tattooing their legs with all sorts of figures, and they 
wear on each leg, just below the knee, a number of very 
fine rings of rattan-cane painted black. They chew a mix- 
ture of lime and very coarse tobacco, as well as betel-nut. 
In this they are unlike the Chinese, who never chew tobacco 
or lime, though they sometimes make use of the betel. 

We stayed here about an hour, to let somebody get 
ahead. Both my Peking boys were now in a deadly fright 
that we, and they with us, would share Margary's fate ; so 
not only would they not go in front, but they always remained 
at a safe distance behind, looking particularly mean ; but 
once they found themselves inside the walls of a house, all 
the old northern bluster came out, and they were tremen- 
dous fire-eaters, especially Chin-Tai, who was the greater 
coward of the two. On the road we met a chair, in which 
the mother of Li-Sieh-Tai was travelling ; she was supposed 
to be a sister of the King of Burmah, though this was disputed 
by most of the Chinese. Some of the coolies and people 
with her were heard to say : — 

* What ! Here they are again ; are they not frightened 
yet?' 

These sort of remarks from people about had been 
rather frequent lately, and they had not contributed to raise 
the courage of my two servants. 

It was now astounding to note the manner in which the 
river (Ta-Ying-Ho or Ta-Ho) had grown since T'eng-Yiieh, 
where it was but a stream a few yards wide. Here the bed 



286 . AN AMUSING PERFORMANCE. CH. 

was nearly a mile across ; at this season it was not, of course, 
full, but we were seven minutes fording the main branch, 
the water being above the horse's belly, and flowing two to 
three miles an hour. Besides this there were four other 
channels twenty yards wide, and several smaller ones, and I 
began to understand, what had hitherto appeared almost 
incredible, that the sources of the majestic Irawadi might 
be as far south as they are represented on all maps. 

On the 22nd, after the heavy rain of the previous day, 
all nature was fresh and green ; there was a delicious feeling 
in the air, and the sun was shining in a clear sky, as a salute 
of three guns announced our departure, with an escort that 
reached the respectable number of thirty. 

The direct road to Chan-Ta* is on the right bank of the 
river ; but a portion of it was so bad and muddy that it was 
deemed advisable to cross and recrossthe stream ; we crossed 
in the dug-out trunk of a tree, our animals swimming over. 
This was an amusing performance, chiefly on account of my 
grey, who was a pony of remarkable force of character ; the 
otheranimals always submitted to the authority he established 
over them, and here the half dozen, with whom he had only 
been acquainted a couple of hours, obeyed him with the 
utmost docihty. Being driven into the river, he led as long 
as he could find the bottom ; but, unaccustomed to swimming, 
he did not hke the deep water, and as soon as he was nearly 
out of his depth he wandered about in a purposeless manner, 
leading the rest to follow his example. Our canoe then 
made for the group ; we drove them on, and they swam 
until they reached a shoal, where the grey, always ready for 
mischief, anchored himself, the other beasts doing the same 
with admirable regularity. And now all the persuasive elo- 
quence of the Ma-Fu on the opposite bank was powerless to 
induce them to move, until they were driven on by another 
canoe that passed that way. Once started there was no 
other halting-place until they reached the land ; and here 
it was really delightful to see how thoroughly they all enjoyed, 
a good roll in a fine bed of bright, clean sand, which seemed 

* Sanda of Anderson and others — K 



XV. LOVELY SCENE NEAR CHANT A, 287 

as if it had been laid there expressly for that purpose. For 
the last month my grey had been covered with mud, which 
had never been removed, and now that at length his coat 
was really clean, it was scarcely possible to recognise him. 

This business had been a somewhat lengthy one, and 
although Chin-Tai and Chung-Erh had taken very good 
care to start long after everybody else, they had by this 
time overtaken us, and might have been observed standing 
about on the opposite bank in a nonchalant sort of way, 
trying to look as if they had no connection whatever with 
any one else. 

As we proceeded, fresh sights continually presented 
themselves. Here there were some ricks of unthrashed rice, 
in shape like English hayricks, and standing in fields of rice- 
stubble ; and, notwithstanding their un-English surroundings, 
they could not fail to bring recollections of many an English 
country scene. In a hamlet hard by we saw the first 
Burmese pagoda, with a high steeple ; and the huge leaf of 
the plantain and the delicate bamboo sheltered the mud 
walls and thatched roofs of every village. Yellow wild 
ducks, that apparently knew no fear of man, paddled lazily 
in the broad reaches of the river ; but these, they say, are 
sacred — the Lamas, or Phoongyees, as the priests ought now 
to be called, throwing over them their protecting aegis of 
sanctity, chiefly on account of their colour. 

Leaving the river, we ascended a spur, the end of a 
ridge dividing the Taping from a small tributary called by 
Anderson the Nam-Sanda,^ and from the crest, about two 
hundred feet above the river, there was a glorious view to 
the south-west, over the magnificent valley. It was a lovely 
scene : the plain was covered with rice-fields, the crop now 
nearly or quite ripe, and as yellow as a September corn- 
field at home ; dotted over it were numerous villages, all 
enclosed, and the houses nearly hidden, by fine bamboo or 
banyan trees. Here and there would be a noble old banyan, 
placed by nature on the summit of some grassy knoll that 
rose up from the midst of the golden meadows ; in other 

» Le, the * Sanda (or Chan-Ta) River,*— K. 



ZSS OPPRESSIONS OF CHINESE, CH. 

places these trees might be standing up amongst the rice 
on an artificial mound, and often some young sapling just 
planted would be protected by a fence of split bamboo. On 
both sides rose a fine range of mountains, their slopes 
diversified with woods, patches of cultivation, and stretches 
of fine grass ; and, winding through the plain, the fine river 
rolled smoothly down to join the Irawadi. 

An excellent road took us to Chan-Ta, the residence of 
another Shan chief, who holds the Chinese rank of Yu-Chi. 
This was probably the little boy who became the adopted 
heir of Sladen in 1868, for he was now fifteen years of age, 
his affairs being conducted by a relative. He seemed 
miserably poor, and was dreadfully ill at ease during the 
ceremonious reception. He wanted to learn English, and 
asked us whether any one would teach him if he went to 
Rangoon. He talked Chinese very slightly, and complained 
that it was a very difficult language. The whole house was 
half tumbling down, and very dirty — a remarkable contrast 
to the * handsome structure of blue gneiss on a large and 
handsome scale' described by Anderson.^ We had the 
usual suite of a building to ourselves : one room in the 
centre quite open in front, and another at each side. There 
was a wretched old table with one leg missing, and the other 
three tied up with bamboo strips. The beds were made of 
doors on trestles, and everything betokened poverty and 
ruin. The people complained bitterly of Chinese oppres- 
sion ; they said that nothing was left to them, even their 
very tables and chairs being -taken if they had any. One 
man standing about had been to Rangoon ; he loudly 
praised the English rule, declared that their own government 
was abominable, and, though he did not say so, evidently 
wished from the bottom of his heart that England would 
walk in and annex this country. We were not saluted on 
arrival, but the affairs of this chief seemed so badly managed 
that it was no matter for surprise. A fowl and a duck were 
brought in and flung under a bench ; we afterwards learnt 
that these were meant as a present ; but we had.no idea of it 

" Mandalay and Momein^ p 169. 



MiP9Piw««<iaaa«pp*H«aP!HW«a*iMH*a«iiV««vp 



XV. FESTIVAL AT CHAN-TA. 289 

at the time, as the presentation of a gift of this kind ought 
to be, and almost invariably is, attended with considerable 
ceremony. 

The conduct of the two Cantonese men who were with 
us was abominable. The rank of the native chief was 
higher than that of their master ; but amongst the Chinese 
that counts for nothing, a Chinese coolie thinking himself as 
good as, if not better than, the highest native chief. Directly 
we arrived, the Cantonese wanted their opium and a place to 
smoke it in ; they called for this and for that, and spoke to 
the people as if they were so much dirt. One place was too 
draughty for the lamps, another not comfortable, and they 
grumbled and cursed and made themselves generally dis- 
agreeable. In the hearing of all they told us in a loud voice 
that these natives did not understand common politeness, 
that no guns had been fired for us on our arrival, and that 
it would be a good thing when they were all killed. The 
native chiefs must put up with all this, as they dare not say 
a word even to the servants of a Chinese official. The 
exactions they have to support, too, are terrible. Chinese 
officials passing and repassing take lodging, food, coolies, 
horses, and everything without payment, and grind down 
the people till they can scarcely live. Some time previously, 
in the territory of Kan-^^ai, some of the wild mountaineers, 
subject to no one, made a descent, attacked a party of 
traders, and stole some bales of cotton. The chief was 
called on to pay, not only the full value, but double the 
amount over again in squeezes to the various Chinese 
officials, though he was quite powerless to have prevented 
the attack. No wonder all these people who live so close 
to our good rule wish that we would come and govern their 
country. 

The 23rd of October was a day on which a great festival 
of some sort was held at Chan-Ta, and nearly two hundred 
retainers had been brought into the house to accompany the 
chief to a temple. The people are not much earlier in their 
habits here than generally in Yiin-Nan. I enjoyed a quiet 
hour's writing before any one else was astir, and then watched 
the people get up one by one and perform their scatvt^ 

u 



290 SHAN PICTURES BY THE WAY, CH. 

ablutions in the courtyard, after rubbing the sleep out of 
their eyes. 

As the Shan chief went off to his devotions, he passed 
through a double hne of men, who were attired in most 
picturesque costumes. All were armed with swords or guns, 
some had both, and after the sober dresses of the Chinese, 
the contrast of the brilliant colours in which these people 
love to deck themselves was very striking. The Chinese 
almost invariably wear the dark blue cotton in winter, and 
in summer they dress in white ; the Tibetans, too, indulge 
in little bright colouring, for the clothes of the Lamas are 
but a dull red ; but here, all of a sudden, there were people 
wearing green, red, yellow, or purple cummerbunds and 
turbans. 

The Shan chief rode in his chair, carried by some very 
ragged and clumsy chair-coolies ; his official red umbrella, 
seal of office, and diploma, all done up in red or yellow, 
went before him. There were two or three big muskets, 
like punt-guns, carried by two men apiece, the rest of the 
retainers being armed with matchlocks or old percussion- 
guns. The chief was away at this business a little more 
than an hour, and as soon as he returned the people began 
to stir themselves about getting mules, and as all the men 
and women for miles round came in to pay a state visit to 
he chief, every one was very glad to get us out of the way, 
and as much haste as possible was made to find us what we 
wanted. 

The consumption of pork in the house on this festive 
occasion was enormous ; half the pigs in the village must 
have been killed for the purpose. Every two or three 
minutes a man passed through the door leading to the 
private apartments, carrying a huge lump of pork. Up to 
this point, as far as eating is concerned, the people had been 
exactly like the Chinese : at all the little stalls, under the 
trees, the usual Chinese dishes had been invariably found, 
and here the regular Chinese love of pork was most evident. 
As we started, and rode off through the village, where 
numbers of a small, but particularly repulsive-looking, breed 
of pigs, with unusually long snouts, were wallowing in the 



XV. SHAN AND KAKYEN FIGURES, 291 

mire, and where, as a contrast, there were some very hand- 
some ducks and geese, we met all the people dressed in 
their best clothes coming in^an3 really it was a very pretty 
sight. The women mostly wore tight black cotton garments, 
which were folded many times round their hips, giving to 
this part of the body the appearance of great breadth. 
Some, instead of black bodies to their dresses, wore them of 
blue, green, or almost any bright colour except red, and 
some wore white. The people looked very much cleaner 
than the "Chinese, their white clothing, whether on men or 
women, always being clean and fresh. Their sleeves were 
generally ornamented with red cuffs. They wore loose 
black trousers reaching a little below the knee, the rest of 
their legs and feet being quite bare. Round their waists 
there were brilliant cummerbunds, mostly of cotton, but 
some of silk. These were of every hue, red being the 
favourite tint, and there was a bunch of bits of cloth of all 
sorts of bright colours, like a large tassel, tucked in behind. 
Their turbans, swelUng as they rose high above their heads, 
were black, and decorated with pins, from which hung large 
ornaments of beads, with very large and bright-coloured 
tassels, generally red. A narrow slip of black cloth formed 
a necktie, and was fastened at the throat with a large brooch 
of silver, sometimes set with fifteen stones in three horizontal 
rows. 

Round their necks they wore two or three heavy silver 
hoops, eighteen inches in diameter ; earrings, with bright 
red tassels, played against their cheeks ; their wrists were 
weighted with three or four massive silver bracelets, and 
their fingers were tricked with a quantity of heavy silver 
rings, set with stones of a very inferior description. The 
ears of some of the women were pierced with holes about 
half an inch in diameter, in which silver tubes, two or three 
inches long, were inserted ; and a bunch of the delicate 
black rings of rattan-cane encircled the legs of all. They 
were very fond of flowers, nearly all having a brilliant yellow 
flower in their turban, or somewhere else about their dress. 

It was very amusing, too, to see that at least half the 
men wore buttons from England, made in imitation of half- 

u 2 



292 ROADSIDE SCENES. CH. 

rupees, with the head of her Most Gracious Majesty 
embossed upon them. We met also a few women from the 
wild mountain tribes. Th^y were dressed quite differently, 
with bare heads, and their hair cut in a horizontal fringe 
across the forehead, and with a skirt to their dresses, 
embroidered in front ; ^ and here and there a good many 
Lamas or Phoongyees stood lazily about in bright yellow 
dresses and flat yellow turbans, their lips and mouths all red 
with the betel-nut that they chew. It was altogether very 
interesting watching these people, and the first hour of the 
journey passed very quickly. 

Our road generally led through rice-fields. Most of the 
rice was now cut, and the fields were quite dry ; but a good 
deal was still standing, and the horses we were riding could 
hardly be prevented enjoying an occasional mouthful of this 
delicious food, for the path was but a track, with the crops 
growing close on both sides. In some cases a Httle fence 
of split bamboo was erected at the edge ; and every now 
and then, where the road became wider, running between 
banks or hedges of cactus, there would be fences across the 
track with gates, the first gates I had seen since leaving 
Europe. Now there would be a little undulating stretch of 
beautiful turf ; and at another time we rode for nearly a 
quarter of a mile under a fine grove of banyan trees. Here, 
under a gigantic banyan, would be an old man or woman 
seated with a little refreshment stall, where a picturesque 
group of people, horses, or mules would be collected, resting 
and taking a dish of rice, blancmange, pickled quince, or 
a piece from a gigantic cucumber, the size and shape of a 
melon. 

Presently up came an old man, riding a fine chestnut 
pony ; he smiled when he saw us, made a European salute, 
and, very pleased, stopped to say a word or two. He had 
lived twelve years in Ava, and loudly sang the praises of 
the English, who, he said, had treated him, though only a 
poor trader, like a prince. He wanted us to buy his pony. 
He said that our honourable countrymen always liked to 

* These must have been Kakyens (or Kach'yens).--K 



XV. BAMBOOS AND BIRDS BY THE WAY. 293 

buy good horses, and his was just the thing to suit them. 
We did not make the purchase, but wishing him good-bye, 
we rode on. It was very pleasant to find that those who 
had been amongst the English in Burmah were always glad 
to see us, and spoke of our people and our rule as so good 
and just. Here the villages were almost hidden by very 
fine trees and bamboos, but I never saw a bamboo of the 
extraordinary dimensions of which I have heard. All the 
way from Ch'eng-Tu I examined every bamboo grove that 
I passed, and I never saw one more than six inches in 
diameter. 

The road was generally very good and level, about a 
mile or so from the river, but now and then coming close 
down by the edge, where we could see people fishing or 
poling about in their dug-out canoes. Great numbers of 
white paddy-birds flapped about ; there were a few cormo- 
rants, and a yellow wild duck or two ; the magpie was as 
much a part of the landscape as ever, and in the banyan 
trees a kind of black and white chattering bird was generally 
in flocks of ten or a dozen. The day was very fine, the 
temperature just pleasant, and the ride would have been 
perfect but for the unpleasant habit the people have of pur- 
posely keeping their roads under water. Once we came to 
a drop of about two feet into a bog, where one of our ponies 
literally sank up to his nose in the mud, and it was all the 
poor beast could do to extricate himself. 

To our great surprise Chin-Tai galloped on ahead with 
one of the Cantonese, and we wondered what had caused 
this sudden access of courage ; the natural suggestion would 
have been * cash ' — and so it was. 

Shortly before we arrived at the market-place of T'ai- 
P'ing-Chieh (or Kara-hokah of Anderson), he returned, and, 
scarcely intelligible with rage, poured out a torrent of words, 
explaining as well as his excitement would permit how, as 
his pony was unable to travel fast, he had said to the 
Cantonese : — 

* Dear sir, would you be so good as to go on first, and 
kindly find a house for their excellencies to breakfast in ; 
and if, honourable sir, you could make it convenient to 



294 LYING LITIGANTS, CH. 

command rice for the little ones, I should esteem it a very 
high favour.' 

* Whereat,' said Chin-Tai, * the Cantonese began to curse 
and swear, and said that he was no servant of the foreigners, 
and would do nothing for them.' Such in effect was Chin- 
Tai's tale, and now the Cantonese, who had by this time 
rejoined us, gave us his version. 

He said that no sooner was he a long way ahead with 
Chin-Tai, than the latter had accused him of extracting 
eight taels from the native chief to pay for our horses and 
mules, and that Chin-Tai had demanded half of this sum, 
which existed only in the imagination of our follower ; and 
that he had said to Chin-Tai : — 

* Dear Chin-Tai, you are quite mistaken, for I have 
received nothing. I am but a poor Cantonese, and really 
have no money, while you come from the noble city of 
Peking. If I had a few cash, I would willingly share it with 
so honourable a person ; but I have nothing, really nothing.' 

' Then,' said the Cantonese, * Chin-Tai drew his sword 
and beat me twice, and as I was unwilling to be on anything 
but the most friendly terms with your excellencies' servants, 
rather than defend myself I ran away.' 

That both tales were a string of lies went without saying ; 
for if King David had only lived a little further east, his 
verdict, delivered as he confesses in haste, might safely have 
been pronounced in his moments of leisure after the most 
mature deliberation. Not that the Chinese are worse than 
other Eastern nations, in fact they are not so bad as many. 
A Chinaman will always tell the truth for choice, if there is 
no conflicting interest ; but it would be of course too much 
to expect that he would sacrifice either his pocket or his 
convenience to the exigencies of veracity ; on the other 
hand, I have noticed that some Orientals will always lie 
merely for the pleasure of doing so. 

We poured very cold water on the complaints of both 
the disputants with most discriminating impartiality, and so 
contrived to extinguish the flames of their wrath. 

When we arrived at Tai-Fing-Chieh, which consisted of 
one very broad street between low huts of bamboo wicker- 



XV. REACH MAN'YUN. 295 

work, splashed with mud, with thatched roofs, Chin-Tai 
proposed one house and the Cantonese another. Anxious 
to retain the credit we had acquired for holding the scales 
of justice even-handed, we went first to the house of the 
Cantonese selection, and then, finding no rice cooked, 
moved across the road to Chin-Tai's choice, thus hurting 
the feelings of neither party. 

The weather was hot, and the room was small, but it was 
soon densely packed with inquisitive Chinese, who settled 
themselves down comfortably to enjoy the show, until we 
expressed our regret that we could not invite all of them to 
breakfast, for what was one bowl of rice amongst so many ? 
This shamed the greater part of them into a retreat, and we 
were allowed to finish our meal in peace. 

We had a pleasant afternoon's march through the same 
magnificent and fertile valley ; the trees, with which all the 
villages were surrounded, giving the plain the appearance of 
being well wooded. The ground was nearly covered with 
yellow rice, with here and there a small patch of beans, 
cotton, tobacco, or cabbages ; and we arrived at Man-Yiin,* 
the frontier town of China, at about six o'clock in the 
evening. 

We were conducted to the residence of the civil magis- 
trate, of which that officer had spoken in such unctuous terms 
at T'^ng-Yiieh. He, however, had no house, but lived at the 
back of a temple, the eaves of which projected about nine 
feet ; the space underneath, for a length of twenty feet, had 
been walled in by a straw mat, and divided into two com- 
partments by another. One of the rooms so formed was the 
house of the Chinese magistrate ; the other was the mansion 
of one of his subordinates ; and an open cesspit was just 
outside. The poor fellow in giving us his house had cer- 
tainly done the best he could for us, and, as it is never wise 
to be critical with regard to a gift horse, we settled ourselves 
down as well as circumstances would admit. 

The march from the Chinese frontier to Ma-Mou or Sicaw 
is a difficult one, and long and frequent were the legends told 

• This is Manw)me (Manwain), known by the treacherous murder 
of Augustus Margary there. — K 



296 VISIT FROM NOTORIOUS LI-SIEH^TAL CH* 

us of the fearsome nature of the path itself, and the savage 
conduct of the * wildmen/ as the Chinese called the moun- 
taineer inhabitants of the border-land between Cathay and 
Amien. 

It is customary for travellers to pay tribute to the heads 
of all the places passed through. If this is not done they 
have a pleasing habit of cutting down trees and putting them 
in the way ; then the traveller must make a detour to some 
other village, where he may find more trees across the road, 
if he has not been robbed before arrival In this way the 
journey, if performed at all, naturally occupies some days ; 
but sometimes traders will band themselves together, to the 
number of seventy or eighty, and pass through in one march, 
regardless of the 'wildmen/ There was no native chief 
here ; he being dead, a woman, his widow, reigned in his 
stead. She was a stout little woman of already fifty 
summers at the time of Sladen's visit, and ten years had 
probably not added to her activity ; but we did not see her. 
Her affairs were conducted by some deputy, and were, as 
a consequence, all more or less * east and west ; ' but he 
promised to find us mules and coolies, and a * wildman ' to 
take a letter to Bhamo. 

We had already sent a letter from Ta-Li-Fu, which the 
Tao-Tai had informed us would travel at the rate of fifty 
miles a day. At T'eng-Yiieh I had written another, and had 
entrusted it to the officials, but it had been returned to me 
the same evening with the excuse that it had been opened 
by some one in mistake ; and although it is probable that 
this was true I did not deem it worth while to make another 
attempt. But Li-Sieh-Tai, who called on us, told us that my 
letter despatched from Ta-Li-Fu on the 30th of September, 
had only reached Man-Yiin on the 20th of October ; and 
as the * wildmen ' demanded 5/. for taking a letter to Sicaw, 
and there seemed much uncertainty of its getting beyond 
that place, we abandoned the idea. 

Li rather made light of the difficulties of the road, but 
said he did not think we could reach Sicaw in one day. 

We naturally looked with peculiar interest at this man, 
whose career had been so remarkable, and on whom so. 



XV. TREATMENT AT MAN-YUN, 297 

much suspicion hung with regard to the deplorable death 
of our countryman Mr. Margary. 

A Burmese officer called on us, who astonished us by 
shaking hands in European fashion. He wore a bright 
yellow embroidered silk handkerchief on his head, and a 
Chinese jacket, with the regulation five buttons, and lined 
with fur, though the thermometer was between 70° and 80°. 
A long piece of silk, about a yard broad, striped yellow, 
green, red, and white — ^yellow being the predominating 
colour — was wound round his waist, forming a skirt ; and 
the end, folded three or four times into a sash, hung down 
in front. His legs were bare, and his feet were encased in 
a pair of wooden sandals turned up in front. He was, in 
some way connected with the place, held a Chinese official 
rank, and talked Chinese very well. 

Our meals at Man-Yiin put me in mind of the Zoological 
Gardens. We used to take them in the chief part of the 
temple, which was open to the front, except for some large 
wooden gates with vertical bars about nine feet high. Here 
the inquisitive crowd used to collect and stare through at us. 
It only wanted a placard outside — * Animals feed at n and 
7 * — to make the resemblance complete. 

The Chinese civil magistrate, whose house we were 
occupying, arrived in the evening ; but he would not let us 
turn out, and he found a small garret adjacent. He told us 
that he would make all the arrangements with the chiefs of 
the districts, and that we should find twenty native soldiers 
sufficient as an escort. 

He advised us to take some opium as a present for the 
heads of the villages. He added that the mountaineers had 
a superstition that if people rode through their villages, ill- 
luck would follow, and he counselled us to dismount and 
walk through them. We asked if the officers of the British 
force that marched through dismounted at the villages. He 
said he thought not, but that they were a strong body, and 
could do as they pleased. The number of disbanded soldiers 
had again risen, and according to the latest intelligence there 
were three bands, of two hundred or three hundred each ; 
and, instead of being between Man-Yiin and T'eng-Yiieh^ it 



293 THE PA-I PEOPLE. CH. 

was now stated that they were at Ma-Mou, or between that 
place and Man-Yiin. 

A steady rain kept us indoors during our stay at Man- 
Yiin, but we managed to visit the market between the 
showers. Some of the Pa- 1 people were seen about The 
customs of the Pa- 1 in south-eastern Yiin-Nan, as related 
by Gamier, seem similar to those of all the tribes in this 
district, especially the delight in silver ornaments ; but none 
of the dresses in Gamier's picture are much like those 
of the natives here. The Pa- 1 women in Man-Yiin were 
certainly very good-looking as compared with the Chinese.^ 

There were quantities of English goods in the market — 
needles, buttons, balls of thread, and English cotton — and a 
long train of two hundred or three hundred mules came in 
from Bhamo laden with salt from England. The caravan 
had been attacked on the road, and had lost twenty mules. 
The salt reaches Nan-Tien, although it has no business to 
go even as far as that ; for Nan-Tien, though under a native 
chief, is ruled by, and is a part of, China, where salt is a 
Government monopoly, and where the importation is for- 
bidden by law. 

As far as T'eng-Yiieh, we passed trains of salt going the 
same way as ourselves, and beyond Nan-Tien we saw it 
coming up from the other direction. 

At the time of our visit to Man-Yiin there was a head-, 
man with one of the most villainous faces that it had ever 
been my lot to see, but he appeared all-powerful, and even 
the Chinese magistrate seemed more or less in his hands. 
He seemed to have had a guilty conscience about something, 
for when the Grosvenor expedition was here he cleared out 
and ran away. The Chinese magistrate was, of course, 
determined to make as much out of us as possible. He 
averred that he had no authority whatever over the people 
between Man-Yiin and Bhamo ; but although we completely 
failed to get mules without his assistance, directly he made 
sure that he could gain a large profit the mules were arranged 

® Pa-I is the Chinese name of a Shan race widely diffused in Yun- 
Nan, or rather is the synonym of Shan. See Marco PolOy 2nd ed. 
ii. 51.— y. 



XV. LETTER FROM MR, COOPER. 299 

for. He professed to be very much annoyed when the people 
asked us five taels per animal for the journey, and assured 
us that one tael was quite enough. He, however, made 
arrangements with a chief to conduct us for 2*2 taels. He 
told us that we must pay a further sum of ten taels to this 
chief as a kind of tribute, and also give him one hundred 
taels weight of opium to distribute along the road. He said 
that we ought to pay the money and opium through him, 
and he wanted us to give the whole in advance. This we 
refused, but paid him half the opium, the whole of the ten 
taels tribute, and half the mule hire. 

This sum ot 2*2 taels was very high ; but Sladen's expe- 
dition, Margary, and subsequently the Grosvenor expedition, 
all paid more, and it was consequently very difficult to make 
arrangements even at this rate ; but we were determined, as 
far as possible, to consider those who might follow us ; 
otherwise, as it was the last stage, we would willingly have 
paid whatever was asked, to avoid the haggling. 

Whilst at Man-Yiin we received a warm letter of welcome 
from the late Mr. T. T. Cooper, and after all our wanderings 
it was a pleasant thing to feel ourselves once again so nearly 
under the shadow of the British flag. 

Before leaving Man-Yiin I instituted a gun-bearer, for 
during the journey to Ma-Mou we should be more or less 
liable to an attack of some sort, and the coolie was given 
strict injunctions never, under any circumstances, to leave 
my stirrup. 

The muleteers kept us a long time waiting, so we started 
in advance early on the 29th and sat down under a banyan 
tree until our caravan should catch us up ; the air was 
pleasant, and we were well amused watching the people 
pass. The men — even the agriculturists — without a single 
exception, were armed with swords, and sometimes with 
guns as well, and were tattooed from the waist to the knee. 
This tattooing is commenced at the age of puberty, and it 
must be a long time before it is complete, for no man could 
stand the pain and inflammation on so large a surface of the 
body at one time. 

The wild Kakyen women from the mountains were 



3O0 SCENE OF THE MURDER OF MARGARY. CH. 

coming in to Man-Yiin, all with their hair cut in a fringe 
across the forehead. 

When at last we moved off together we were an im- 
posing force, with twenty native soldiers carrying swords and 
guns. 

Just beyond a stream we came to a hot-spring. We 
asked the chief if this was the scene of poor Margary's 
death. No, he said, but just by the edge of the water where 
we had crossed it. 

Standing thus at the scene of his cruel murder, I could 
not but feel what a loss the country had sustained in that 
brilliant young officer, who, through sickness and the diffi- 
culties attending a pioneer in new and untravelled districts, 
had carried out with singular tact the delicate duties en- 
trusted to him, and may, in the words of Dr. Anderson, be 
said * to have bequeathed it as a public duty — made more 
imperative by its being the most fitting tribute to his worth, 
— to establish in those border-lands the right of Englishmen 
to travel unmolested.' 

* The name of Augustus Raymond Margary will be 
most fitly honoured by a party of his countrymen formally 
asserting the right to traverse, in honour and safety, the route 
between Burmah and China which he was the first English- 
man to explore, and which should be maintained as his most 
durable monument* 

It was our fortune to be the humble instruments of thus 
honouring his name, but any feeling of gratification was lost 
in the thoughts of the rueful scene that had been enacted on 
that fatal shore. We had claimed the legacy bequeathed by 
him, but it was in sorrow that I felt that we had redeemed 
the right his life had purchased. For a moment I thought 
of sketching a spot which will ever be a hallowed one to 
Englishmen ; but it might have raised suspicions in the 
superstitious minds of our companions ; and long after such 
a paltry record would have perished his name will stand 
bright and clear in the recollection of his regretful country- 
men. I uncovered my head as the only tribute of respect 
that I could pay to the memory of one who will ever be 
dear to the hearts, not only of those who knew him, but of 



XV. THE KAKYEN COUNTRY, 301 

all who value the noble qualities of uprightness, courage, 
and determination. 

There are three roads between Man-Yiin and Ma-Mou,' 
and the one we followed does not keep close to the river, 
but winds about amongst spurs thrown out from a high 
wooded range of mountains that bounds the valley, and 
separates it from that of the Nampoung river. There is but 
little cultivation, the country being entirely inhabited by 
Kakyens, who mostly live in small huts by themselves, 
though at about every ten or twelve miles there is a collec- 
tion of perhaps half a dozen, forming a village. These solitary 
huts generally have no walls, but simply consist of a gabled 
roof of thatch supported on bamboo stakes, with a raised 
floor, rather higher than the lower edge of the roof, under- 
neath a portion of it. The floor is made of thin strips of 
split bamboo, and the supports, like almost everything in 
these parts, are of bamboo. The thatch is made from the 
long grass that grows to a height of seven or eight feet, and 
through which the narrow track, which cannot be called a 
road, passes. 

There were no rocky places, nor steep gradients, the great 
difficulties we had to contend with being the frequent bogs, 
one of which was so deep that we were obliged to cut 
branches of trees and grass, and make a path, before the 
animals could cross. We passed through a regular jungle 
of thorns, very long grass, and trees, but as yet did not enter 
the forest of magnificent trees of which I had heard so 
much. The country is very undulating, and admirably 
adapted for robbers' purposes : even a couple of men, hidden 
away amongst the grass on the top of a hill, could easily 
throw a caravan into confusion ; and our chief showed us 
a place where, as the grass was much trampled down some 
yards off" the track, he considered there must have been a 
robbery during the last day or two. 

We had been informed that our chief was going to 
conduct us to his house, a march of only ten miles ; but 

* Ma-Mou is apparently * Old Bhamo * of our maps, at which 
(according to Dalrymple) the East India Company had a factory in the 
middle of the seventeenth century. — K 



302 A SHOT AT THE PARTY. CH. 

after having ridden about seven miles, in answer to my 
inquiries he said that he had taken a different road, as there 
were a good many troublesome people on the other, and 
that now we had come about half-way to our halting-place. 

As it was now about two o'clock, I determined to eat 
my breakfast without dismounting, and soon afterwards 
became so absorbed in the interesting occupation of peeling 
a hard-boiled egg, that I failed to notice a group of some 
twenty or thirty people in a clearing at a little distance. 

The sound of a shot caused me to look up ; but it did 
not strike me as anything more serious than a man frighten- 
ing birds, until Mesny called out — 

* Won't you load your rifle ? they are firing at us ! ' 

The bolt that I made of that egg would even have 
astonished * Ftp^' as I sprang down and clapped a couple of 
cartridges into a heavy double express. The bullet had 
struck a bamboo just in front of the chief, who was riding 
first. 

And now how our old friend Marco would have revelled 
in the telling of how the mules turned tail and fled, and 
nothing on earth would have induced them to turn. How 
off" they sped with such a noise and uproar that you would 
have trowed the world was coming to an end ! And how, 
too, they plunged into the wood, and rushed this way and 
that, dashing their burdens against the trees, bursting their 
harness, and smashing and destroying everything that was 
on them ! How the battle raged furiously ; how you might 
see swashing blows dealt and taken ! How the din and 
uproar were so great, from this side and from that, that GkKi 
might have thundered and no man would have heard it ! 

The necessities of a truthful tale, however, compel me to 
admit that the above animated description, adapted from 
that of the battle of Vochan, is in no way applicable to the 
attack at Pung-Shi. No one seemed either excited or 
alarmed ; the animals, when they were stopped, began 
quietly to nibble the grass ; even the Peking braves shared 
the general apathy, and scarcely turned their heads. The 
native chief put a fresh quid of betel into his mouth, as he 
assured us that it was nothing, and begged us to move on. 



XV. ONLY TENTATIVE, 303 

Not another shot was fired ; and the scene was far more 
ludicrous than thrilling, as one of our party, with an old 
sixteen-bore muzzle-loader, the best lock of which had a 
useful knack of tumbling off at critical moments, and which 
was charged with No. 7 shot, stood at the ready behind a 
hedge so thick that he could not have seen the whole 
Russian army if it had been at the other side. 

The excitement soon * dwindled to a calm,' and we 
quietly marched away from our assailants, who were some 
of the people living in these solitary huts, and who, not- 
withstanding the patch of rice with which they surround 
their dwellings, are more robbers than agriculturists. If 
they see a small train of twenty or thirty animals, they fire a 
shot, when, if the travellers are Chinese, they generally take 
fright, stop, or run away. The wildman then takes tribute, 
or helps himself, seldom killing anybody. In this case the 
assailants, in all probability, had not the faintest idea that 
there were foreigners, and when they saw that we were 
prepared to fight they made no further attempt to interfere 
with us. 

We passed on, and presently came to the outskirts of a 
small village, where all sorts of wonderful things had been 
put up to frighten away the spirits. Two posts were driven 
into the ground, sloping at an angle of about 60°, on which 
curious cabalistic signs were painted in black and white ; 
little square or triangular platforms were erected on bamboo 
stakes for the spirits to sit on ; these were decorated with 
dried branches of leaves and tufts of grass ; and there were 
long rows of bamboo stakes, to each of which a bit of small 
bamboo, about a foot long, was fastened. The history and 
meaning of each and all we could not learn. The people 
would only tell us that they were a protection against the 
spirits, or *Nats.' 

Immediately after this we arrived at the village of Pung- 
Shi,2 consisting of about half a dozen bamboo huts. These 
are all exactly alike. A level platform is first cut out on 
the slope of the hill, leaving a steep bank on. the upper side 

2 Pung-Shi is the * Ponsee ' of Anderson and Sladen.— K 



30A 



KAKYEN HUTS. 



against which the hut is erected, the thatched roof coming 
down to the top of the hank, which thus forms a sort of 
wall. Three feet above the level platform there is a flooring, 
extending over about half the covered area, the other half 
having no floor. The upper portion is divided into com- 
partments by bamboo matting ; the flooring is of split 




bamboo, supported on bamboos resting on piles ; and it is 
reached by a sloping log of wood, in which there may, or 
may not, be notches for the feet. The gable at the upper 
end is closed by matting, with a door leading out. This is 
a private door, for the use of the family only ; the other 
gable is either half or altogether open. 

We were shown into the largest compartment, in the 



XV. FIRE BY AIR-COMPRESSION. 305 

middle ot which some sticks were burning on some earth 
that had been plastered over the flooring to make a hearth. 

On entering, I saw a nice little square wicker shelf in the 
corner— the very place for my hat, I thought, and put it 
down there. Straightway a man leapt up from the ground 
on which he was seated, and, with anxiety pictured on his 
face, snatched it away. At the same moment Chung- Erh 
deposited my saddle-bags underneath this shelf, but hardly 
were they there when another of the men hastily removed 
them. This was the spirit's corner ; for in every house there 
is a portion set apart for the spirit, so that he may not in- 
trude himself elsewhere, and if people put anything or sit 
down in the spirit's corner the consequences that ensue are 
terrible. 

We had a long conversation with this chief, who told us 
that he had not received one cash of the ten taels paid for 
safe conduct, nor one little piece of the opium, all of which 
had been retained by the Chinese magistrate, who probably 
divided the spoil with the head-man with the villainous 
face. 

The natives have an apparatus by which they strike a 
light by compressed air. The apparatus consists of a wooden 
cylinder, two and a half inches long by three quarters of an 
inch diameter. This is closed at one end, the bore being 
about the size of a stout quill-pen ; an air-tight piston fits 
into this, with a large flat knob at the top. The other end of 
the piston is slightly hollowed out, and a very small piece of 
tinder is placed in ^he cup thus formed. The cylinder is 
held in one hand, the piston inserted, and pushed about 
half-way down ; a very sharp blow is then delivered with the 
palm of the hand on to the top of the knob ; the hand must 
at the same time close on the knob, and instantly withdraw 
the piston, when the tinder will be found alight. The com- 
pression of the air produces heat enough to light the tinder ; 
but this will go out again unless the piston is withdrawn very 
sharply. I tried a great many times, but covered myself 
with confusion in fruitless efforts to get a light, for the natives 
themselves never miss it. Altogether, however, I thought 
that Bryant & May were preferable, whose matches are sold 

X 



3o5 BUFFALO BEEF, CH. 

at Man-Yiin for twenty-five cash a box (less than a penny 
farthing), though the lowness of the price seems incredible. 
We dined off some beef of the buffalo. When it first came 
in hot, the odour seemed strangely familiar, and suddenly 
the dining-hall of the Royal Military Academy flashed upon 
me. I again saw it as it used to be, the tables and forms, 
with many long-forgotten details. For there was a peculiar, 
smell appertaining to the beef supplied at this institution 
that I never met with before or since. It is curious how a 
smell will sometimes call to memory scenes of long ago. 
This buffalo beef was exceedingly coarse, but it was eatable, 
and not particularly tough. I tried to believe that the 
animal had not died a natural death, but wisely asked no 
questions on the subject. 

The muleteers would not start before daylight next 
morning, but left soon after six ; they all took cold rice with 
them wrapped up in plantain leaves ; everything betokened 
a long march, and we thought we should sleep at Ma-Mou 
that night. 

It was a lovely morning, and soon we plunged into a 
forest of mighty teak trees with a dense undergrowth of long 
grass, brambles, and bushes, the large forest trees growing 
widely apart. It was magnificent forest scenery, and might 
well have originated some of the wildest fancies of Gustave 
Dor^ : creepers growing to a huge size and twisting round 
the limb of some tree like a gigantic python, the resemblance 
being all the more complete, as the creeper in its growth 
gradually crushes the life out of the limb that has supported 
it. The dead limb then rots away, and the cruel creeper, 
like some monstrous corkscrew, stretched across the path, 
supports itself with difficulty for a while, and then shares the 
fate of its victim. Sometimes after reaching the top of a 
tree a creeper drops down to the ground, so perpendicularly, 
and so straight, that it is difficult to believe that it is not a 
stout rope suspended from a branch. One very remarkable 
fact about these creepers is that they all train, without 
exception, from right to left (against the hands of a watch). 
Then there are trees, with weird-looking roots above the 
ground, grasping an unyielding rock, that fancy might con- 



XV. BAMBOOS AND POTATOES, 307 

jure into the form of some antediluvian cuttlefish, which, in 
its dying agony, was clutching at and striving to crush the 
rock. Butterflies of marvellously brilliant and varied hues 
flutter about amongst the glossy fronds of great tree-ferns, 
and bamboos of a length almost incredible shoot up, till, 
often unable to bear their own weight, they fall across the 
road. The bamboos do not attain any great thickness, 
the largest I measured being five and a half inches, and the 
largest I saw being certainly not more than seven inches in 
diameter ; but their height is extraordinary, as is the number 
of them ; they grow in clumps of twenty or thirty together, 
and, as the road is traversed, there are always two, if not three, 
of these fine groups in sight. They are used for nearly 
every purpose, even that of water buckets ; lengths of about 
three feet are taken for this, and in the houses there are 
always some half-dozen of them in a corner. 

We had rather a tiring march, a great deal of up-and- 
down hill over a somewhat indifferent road, rocky and very 
steep ; but the mules kept up a steady pace until mid-day, 
when, after fording the Nampoung river, we came to a little 
opening. Here the packs were taken off, and the animals 
let loose to graze and roll themselves after their six hours' 
march. All the people had brought cold rice with them, 
and even the chief himself sat down to his cold meal. This 
looked as if they were determined to push on till night, 
and, as some rice had also been put up for the animals, we 
thought the halt would not be long. These people partook 
very contentedly of their uninteresting food ; no Chinaman 
would eat cold rice unless he were driven to very hard 
straits, for he would at least pour some hot or warm water 
over it, and my boys even preferred cold potatoes, some of 
which they fortunately had with them. Potatoes grow in the 
hills here, so that all the way from Ta-Chien-Lu this valuable 
root is found, and, notwithstanding the contempt in which 
the Chinese hold it, the culture has spread with wonderful 
rapidity. 

A wood fire is easily lighted, and so tea was ordered 

Chin-Tai then came up, and asked if we would like some 

poached eggs. We were hungry — a portion of a stale loaf, 

X 2 



3o8 AN L\f PRUDENT HALT TO COOK. CH. 

and hard-boiled eggs, one of which was bad, was not a 
tempting meal even in the forest Chin-Tai's proposal was 
most seductive ; everything appeared handy — still we did not 
quite like the idea of commencing cooking operations ; but 
he who hesitates is lost. We hesitated, finally acquiesced, 
and, as the sequel shows, were lost. 

The chief and all the muleteers, though they had clearly 
made up their minds to start soon, had done so sorely 
against their will, and only on account of the tremendous 
presents that had been promised should a Ma-Mou roof 
shelter us this night When they saw us making cooking 
preparations, the temptation was too strong : numerous fires 
were lighted, men sent off to cut grass for the animals, and 
the unthrashed rice prepared for them was reserved for 
another occasion. The despatch of the grass-cutters we did 
not notice until it was too late ; but after our breakfast and 
a cigar, when we mooted the question of moving, the chief 
quietly replied we would move to-morrow morning, and 
reach Ma-Mou in plenty of time. Threats, persuasions, and 
offers of egregious reward were alike useless ; the chief and 
the muleteers sat stolidly smoking or cooking their rice, 
and simply took not the slightest notice of anything we said. 
We determined, however, to go off, hoping the rest would 
follow ; and, ordering the Ma-Fu to get the ponies, we 
packed up the few things we had out, amongst others the 
thermometer. This instrument had much exercised the 
chief, and he asked if it was the machine by which we found 
out whether there were thieves on the road. * No,' we 
answered. * We can't show you that affair — this is to see 
whether it is hot or cold.' * Why, you needn't trouble your- 
self to do that, you have only to ask me and I can tell you — 
without using anything like that,' was the rather obvious 
retort. 

The people were all very lazy, and even the Ma-Fu, who 
was generally most active and willing, seemed to share the 
general lethargy. Mesny's boy had gone off to cut wood to 
make a bed with, and Chin-Tai and Chung-Erh would not 
catch their animals, and expected the muleteers to do it for 
them, who looked on with a grin. Seeing we were in earnest, the 



XV. A VENTURE IN THE FOREST 309 

muleteers gave our riding animals some rice ; and cowardice 
prevailing over laziness, my two boys, all at once becoming 
very humble, captured their erring beasts, and saddled them 
without more ado. The chief, though clearly more or less 
uneasy in his mind, made no motion of stirring, and we 
started alone, our party being Mesny, Chin-Tai, my Ma-Fu, 
my gun coolie, Mesny 's boy, and myself, Chung- Erh was 
not quite ready, but he followed as fast as he could, fear 
now keeping him close to our heels. 

Of course none of us knew anything of the road, but we 
recklessly plunged again into the forest, trusting to good 
luck and the chances of war. We had not gone far before 
a guide sent by the chief overtook us, for, having undertaken 
to conduct us in safety, he did not like the idea of our 
wandering about by ourselves in the dense forest. We rode 
on steadily, and as fast as we could, but after a little more 
than an hour our guide remarked — 

* It will be dark before we get to Ma-Mou.' 

* Will it ? ' we answered ; * then we shall not get to Ma- 
Mou before dark.' 

This reply, though it ought to have satisfied anyone, did 
not seem to please him, for immediately afterwards he 
stopped at a stream to drink, fell behind us, and at a village 
a hundred yards further on he disappeared, and we saw him 
no more. 

In about half an hour we came to a bifurcation of the 
trail, a halt was called to consider the momentous question, 
and we decided to wait six minutes for the guide. That 
period having expired, the gun-coolie, who coming out quite 
in a new light displayed the instinct of a Mohican chief, now 
examined one path, then the other, and gave it as a deli- 
berate opinion that the left hand or upper road was the right 
one. We consulted a little, and all voting for the motion of 
the gun-coqlie, we again went off. 

Mesny was hopefully of the opinion that ' Tout chemin 
inlne d Rome.^ I could only give a doubtful assent to this 
pleasing theory. We were riding through a very narrow 
track, our faces being continually brushed by the grass or 
leaves, when, all of a sudden, I felt as if there were a necklace 



3IO PERILS FROM ANTS AND BULLIES, ch; 

of thoms on me. I fancied that a bramble stretching across 
the road must have caught me, and thinking that I should get 
sadly torn I tried to bring my pony up abruptly ; this animal 
however, accustomed to follow in a string, stop if the beast 
in front of him stops, and go on when his leader moves, 
would not come to a halt as quickly as I wished ; and then 
I found that though there was no feeling of scratching, the 
pain was becoming every second more intense, as if my 
necklace of thorns was being gradually tightened. In a 
very few moments I could bear it no longer, and, nearly 
frantic with wonder as to what had occurred, and the sharp, 
stinging pain, I shouted out to Mesny in front. He looked 
back, and called out — * Get down, get down ! you are covered 
with ants.' I jumped off the pony, and found that thousands 
of huge red ants nearly a quarter of an inch long were in my 
hair, under my shirt, all over my clothes, and viciously biting 
with one accord ; I was simply covered with them. I took 
off my clothes, and though the Ma-Fu and both my boys 
came to my aid, it was a long time before I was altogether 
free. 

Mesny had gone on a few yards with the gun-coolie, and 
now I suddenly heard his voice in loud altercation with 
some one. I was behind a hedge, was completely hidden 
from everything in front, and could not see what was going 
on. I hurried up, and saw Mesny pointing his revolver at a 
man, who, at ' that moment, disappeared into a hut about 
twenty yards off the road, and the gun-coolie squatting down 
and struggling with the buckle of my rifle-case. 

Chinamen are never able to manage a buckle ; indeed, 
I have often thought a buckle almost as good as a padlock. 
I quickly extracted and loaded my rifle, and asked Mesny 
what was up. 

* Oh, he says we may not ride past his house, but must 
walk.' 

* Does he ? ' I answered ; and we both jumped quickly 
on our ponies, and, revolver in hand, rode on till the bushes 
and trees hid him from view. 

Mesny now told me that, as he went on, the gun-coolie 
jusi in front sat down to brush off the ants, some of which 



XV. WOULD-BE LEVIERS OF BLACKMAIL, 311 

had attacked him also, when a man armed with a sword ran 
towards Mesny, who he thought was alone, as owing to the 
bushes he could see no one else, and whom he evidently 
mistook for a Chinaman. 

The native called out that no one was to ride past. 
Mesny shouted to the coolie to bring the foreign gun, but 
the latter was so busy with the ants that he did not under- 
stand what was happening. The man then went into his 
hut, and came back with a gun, followed by another man, 
or woman, unarmed ; he knelt down, and, resting his gun 
against a post, aimed at Mesny, who, pointing his revolver 
at the native, called out — 

* If you shoot, you are a dead man.' 

* Oh,' he cried, * I'm not shooting your way.' 

* I don't care where you shoot ; if you fire, I shall hit 
you,' said Mesny ; whereat the man put away his gun, again 
said that no one must ride past, but retired into his hut. 

This was the work of a few seconds, and it was at this 
point that I came up. Nothing more came of this adventure ; 
but we gave orders. to our people not to make any noise 
when there were any huts about, for we did not want any 
more of these occurrences. 

This is the way these natives always treat passers-by ; the 
Chinese are afraid, they give way, and then when the wild- 
man has gained the first point and made them walk, he calls 
his neighbours, and all demand blackmail — tobacco, opium, 
and silver — so that the wretched trader has altogether a mean 
time of it. But these people, like all bullies, are regular 
cowards, and the smallest show of resistance brings them 
down from their tall trees. 

We rode on, and as it began to get dark we wondered 
where we should pass the night. Though there was no 
moon, the stars were very brilliant, but here and there not 
a ray of light could penetrate the thick and heavy foliage. 
At last the darkness became so pitchy that we might have 
been knocked out of our saddles by some overhanging 
bough before we could have seen it, and, not deeming it safe 
to ride, we dismounted. We stepped into a regular quagmire, 
and, up to our knees ' -^ ''^""^bled about 



312 BENIGHTED, CH. 

amongst great rocks and stones for fifty yards or so, until, 
the trees being a little more open, it was again safe to mount 
We saw a hut or two, but, doubtful as to what sort of a recep- 
tion we should meet with, we passed them by; but, at last, 
getting very uneasy as to whether or not we were on the 
right track, we called out to a man sitting over a fire. He 
would give us, however, no reply of any sort, and we passed 
on. At seven o'clock we came across a deserted hut ; here 
we halted, lit a fire, and began to prepare some torches ; 
but while this was going on we held a consultation. We 
did not even know whether we were on the right road ; we 
could see nothing ; we did not know how far Ma-Mou might 
be, nor what sort of a place it was ; it might have walls and 
gates, and, if so, the latter might be shut, if we ever arrived 
there. From what we had seen of the plain before it became 
dark it looked as if there was a great deal of water about. 
Here was, at least, a shelter for the night. It was true that 
Ma-Mou, if we had kept the right road, could not be far off ; 
but, even if thus far we had not gone wrong, we might 
possibly stray in the next few miles. . At length the final 
verdict was given to stop, and then everyone was more or 
less glad. I had some bread still in my saddle-bags, my 
servants had the remains of a few potatoes, and a kind of 
root like a turnip was discovered by some eyes that could 
see in the dark. There was also a pinch of tea and a small 
brass wash-hand-basin to make it in; so, after a meal that was 
rather simple than plentiful, I smoked one cigar, wrapped 
myself in a blanket, and defied the mosquitoes until dawn. 

The mosquitoes annoyed Mesny sadly, but they let me 
alone somehow, although I dreamt I was under mosquito- 
curtains engaged in hunting some dozen of venomous brutes 
the size of dragon-flies ; but it was after all only a dream, 
and I managed to get through a considerable number of 
hours of sleep before the first grey streak of dawn. 

There had, as usual, been a very heavy dew, and, riding 
through the jungle, we were soon all wet enough to welcome 
the sun when at last he topped the hills and began to dry 
us as well as the bushes. There had been nothing for us 
to eat or drink before starting, but the thoughts that now we 



XV. A WELCOME RENCONTRE^ 313 

reaHy were at the end of our land journey, quite drove away 
unpleasant feelings of any kind. A very short ride brought 
us to a village at the foot of the hills ; but before reaching it 
we passed a stream over some planks which would most 
effectually have stopped us in the dark. At the village, the 
promise of a rupee procured us a guide, who, soon after 
turning abruptly to the left, showed us that even if we had 
passed the bridge we should most certainly and inevitably 
have taken the wrong road at this point, and it was com- 
forting to think that we had after all done right in stopping. 

Presently we met a man carrying a couple of mallards and 
a double-barrelled breechloader. While I was wondering 
who he might be he made a military salute, and, in a language 
of which no one of us understood one single word, explained 
that a letter had arrived somewhere ; he then turned back 
with us. We now dismissed the guide with a rupee borrowed 
from the gun-coolie, and, much elated, continued our ride, 
discussing meanwhile our new companion, who continually 
shouted to an invisible person somewhere away in the jungle 
on our right We, however, could make nothing of him, 
and soon Ma-Mou was pointed out. We were taken straight 
to a house, where a Bengali met us, and, making a salute, 
told us that Cooper had sent him, his boat, and a number 
of men to meet us, and that he had been waiting for us 
eight days. This my almost forgotten Hindustani enabled 
me to gather ; but I must confess in shame that I was not 
long in discovering that he spoke English very much better 
than I did his language. A house had been prepared for 
us ; here was a pile of newspapers, a letter from Cooper, 
two huge boxes of eatables and drinkables, pipes, tobacco, 
cigars, candles, candlesticks, matches, and everything one 
thoughtful and experienced traveller could send to comfort 
the heart and mind of another. 

Though the news was not very recent it was the latest 
Cooper had, and no one who has not gone through the 
anxiety that I had felt during the last two months can form 
the slightest conception of the feeling that came over me — 
one that I utterly failed to comprehend even myself, a feel- 
ing of peace, ease, and contentment quite indescribable, and 



314 A BURMESE BALLET, CK. 

so apparent that Mesny told me afterwards that I appeared 
to be quite a different person. Chin-Tai was set to work at 
once to cook rice for our unfortunate and starving crew. 
Much to our delight the mules arrived before the rice-eating 
was finished. A bath, clean clothes, and breakfast was 
followed by one of Cooper's Havannah cigars, and I ex- 
claimed with Pangloss, * All is for the best in the best of 
worlds possible.' 

The corporal, for such he was who spoke the English, 
told us that the steamer would not be at Bhamo for two 
or three days, and would not start for two or three more, so 
we determined to take it easy, remain at Ma-Mou till the 
next morning, and then drop quietly down the river. The 
corporal added that a letter that we had sent from Pung- 
Shi arrived the previous afternoon, and that he had found a 
means to forward it to Cooper. 

The house we were in was of bamboo, raised about five 
feet above the ground on piles of teak ; the roof was of 
thatch, and the walls and floor of split bamboos, and here 
we looked on to the river of T'eng-Yiieh, now grown to a 
fine large rolling stream. 

In the afternoon the corporal came to tell us that the 
Burmese officer had arranged that * Burmese woman should 
make ball this evening,' if we liked, by which we eventually 
understood that a dance had been arranged outside our 
house, for our edification after dinner. 

The dance eventually took place by the light of a quan- 
tity of crude petroleum in a large broken earthen jar, in 
which there was a long branch of a live tree. There were 
three women performers, their hair done neatly and quietly 
up in a knot on their heads ; they had small earrings, a 
white jacket, and a red skirt reaching down to the ankles ; 
each had a yellow silk handkerchief laid over one shoulder, 
but which was continually used during the dance, and they 
all wore heavy silver bracelets. There were four or five 
men, one or two naked to the waist, and with broad cloths 
of different colours and patterns wound round their hips. 
Music and drumming was kept up all the time -, first the 
women danced for half an hour a very slow quiet measure, 



XV. EMBARK ON RIVER. 315 

simply moving their feet and hands very gently, and with 
infinitely more grace than the hideous, impossible, and un- 
natural postures that our most admired European opera- 
dancers fling themselves into. Then it was the turn of the 
men ; and after some time one who must have been the 
recognised favourite of the troupe appeared, for his entrance 
was greeted with a burst of laughter, though there did not 
appear to be anything particularly amusing about it. That 
he did the low comedy business was subsequently quite 
clear, by the continual laughter that was showered on his 
words and actions ; for besides dancing there was a sort of 
play, in which all the men and women joined, and in which 
the picking of leaves off the branch of the tree seemed to 
take an important part What it was all about I never had 
the faintest idea, and had it not been for Cooper's packet of 
cigars, which I finished, I might have wearied of the per- 
formance ; but, sitting outside the house on a large platform 
in the lovely cool starlight night, and looking down on the 
play by the fitful light of the petroleum, which sometimes 
flared up and at others nearly died away, casting wonderful 
lights and shadows over the performers and a great number 
of people collected to see the theatricals, some leaning 
against the posts of the next house, some lying or sitting on 
the ground, others on great logs of wood, but all in graceful 
attitudes, there was a pleasant feeling of ease and comfort, 
which lasted as long as the cigars. When these were done, 
I gave the corporal some silver for the actors and retired to 
bed. 

Cooper had sent up his boat for us, a fast and comfort- 
able one, with a little covered-in house at the stern, where 
we could just lie down or sit. Another native boat was 
hired for luggage, servants, and the horse, and we started 
easily at nine o'clock on the ist of November. 

It was rather warm on the way down. The river winds 
between low and uninteresting banks of high grass jungle 
with trees ; hills are away in the background ; a porpoise 
rolls here and there, kingfishers dart about amongst the reeds, 
huge pelicans drop into the water with a splash that seems 
to threaten destruction to their breast-bones ; a few native 



3i6 KINDLY WELCOME FROM MR. COOPER, CH. 

boats are passed made on Dicey's plan — two dug-out canoes, 
separated by three or four feet, with a deck across, and a 
house at the stem ; single canoes also are paddled about ; 
but the scenery did not vary sufficiently to raise excitement, 
and, after reading the last word of the last newspaper, I slept 
during the greater part of the journey. 

The T^eng-Yiieh river enters the Irawadi about a mile 
above Bhamo, and in the Irawadi I was much disappointed. 
I had expected an immense and gigantic river, like the 
Yang-Tzii at Chin-Kiang. It is true that the river even 
now is very wide — a quarter of a mile perhaps — but it is 
shallow, and the current is slow. Now that I had seen the 
marvellous way in which the T'eng-Yiieh river increases in 
a few miles, had also seen how much less water passes 
Bhamo than I had thought, and when I considered the 
almost continual rain that falls over the basin of this river, 
the Irawadi ceased to be a mystery. 

We reached Bhamo before three, the distance being 
about twenty miles, and here was Cooper to shake our 
hands. Oh, the pleasure of a hearty British shake of the 
hand ! who shall measure it after the everlasting ceremonies 
of the Chinese ! I know of strange people in England 
who object to shaking hands as an ungraceful, rough, and 
barbarous salutation. It may be so, but I know that that 
one hearty grasp meant more than ten thousand Chinese 
flowery expressions about my honourable self, and did me 
more good and put me in better spirits than anything that 
had happened for many a long and weary day. The attempt 
to convey an idea of the kindness Cooper showered upon 
me would be vain, nor can I describe the delightful feeling 
of being once again in a clean house, where I could walk 
without tucking my trousers inside my socks, of seeing a 
damask tablecloth, and the thousand and one things never 
noticed at home, but which seem such luxuries after long 
separation. We had something to eat immediately, and to 
drink. We passed the afternoon and evening in talking 
over our travels, and went to bed early. 

We were generously and hospitably entertained by the 
late Mr. T. T. Cooper until the 6th of November, when pack- 



XV. ALAS! POOR COOPER. 317 

^.nimals were left behind, and we were swiftly borne down the 
broad bosom of the Irawadi towards home and civilisation. 

How quickly those first hours of idleness sped by, 
though the past had already begun to assume the misty 
outlines of a dream when the day of our departure arrived. 
One warm shake of the hand, and, as we stepped into the 
boat and left our host alone to his solitary life, with cheery 
wishes that we soon might meet again, it was well that the 
future was hidden from us. 

Death, alas ! has made sad havoc amongst those to 
whose kindness in distant lands I owe so much ; and there 
is something of irony in the fate that permitted Mr, Cooper, 
in his desperate attempt to pass from China to Burmah 
through the rebel camp during the Mahometan insurrection, 
to live so long with his life in his hands, and to escape to 
tell the tale, and that yet, whilst in comparative security, 
and with the British flag floating above him, gave him over 
to the bullet of an assassin. 

The boat pushed off" into the swirling stream ; in a few 
minutes we stood on board the *Ta-Pa-Ing,' the last rope 
was cast loose, and, as Bhamo disappeared from our view, a 
veil seemed as it were to pass over the recollections of the 
old travelling life, and it almost appeared as if a new phase 
of existence had been entered on, as we swept past the 
wooded shores, with here and there a town, where high- 
sterned boats would be drawn up in tiers, and where, in the 
early morning, we might hear the musical swell and fall of 
the Phoongyee's bdl.^ 

On by New Mandalay, with its temples, whose gilded 
roofs bring to mind the gold and silver towers of Mien ; * by 
Prome, and at last to Rangoon. A few days' steaming on a 
sea of glass, and the City of Palaces was reached ; a few 
weeks amongst many Indian friends, and everywhere the 
kindness and hospitality surrounding me helped to banish 

* In Burmah the priests, or Phoongyees, go round from house to 
house collecting rice from the well-disposed ; as they walk slowly round 
the village or town they strike from time to time a silver-toned piece of 
gun-metal. 

* Marco PolOy vol. ii. chap. liv. 






/ 



31 8 . HOME AT LAST, CH. xv. 

from my recollection the fatigues and discomforts of travel ; 
never can I sufficiently thank those amongst whom I passed 
those first few weeks of civilisation, and of enjoyment such 
as I can hardly hope for again. 

Westward again ; and it was with mingled feelings that 
my glances first hghted on the European continent ; soon 
the white cliffs of Dover rose on the horizon, and after 
twenty months of travel I was home at last. 



INDEX. 



■•o«- 



ABBAS 

ABBAS Mirza, [33 n] 
Abel-R^musat, 34 

Aberdare, Lord, [i3o] 

Abu'l-Fazl, [89] 

Accident to Captain Gill, [23] 

ship, how repaired, 79 

Accounts, eccentric system of Chinese, 331 

' Across Chryse,' [141] 

* Afric's sunny fountains,' [67] 

Agriculture, Chinese, 76 

Ajanta cave-temples, [19] 

Akhar-abad, [39] 

A/anasAan, capture of th6 usurper, [90] 

Alanto, r72l 

Alarm, a false, 227 

'Ala-ud-din Musa'Cid, King of Delhi, [91] 

Alcock, Sir Rutherford, [no] 

Alexandria, [51] 

Alphabetum Tibetanum, [70] 

Amarapura, volume of the Irawadi at, [75] 

Ambassadors, rank of Chinese, 157 ; the 
Lama, 176 

Amdoans, the, [136] 

Amien of Marco Polo, 297 

Anderson, Dr. [79], [no], 251 n, 386 n, 387, 
288, 293, 301 

Anecdote of General Scobeleff, [32] ; of a 
bold bad man, [35] ; of a shabby mean- 
looking person, [46] ; of a railway-con- 
tractor, [49] ; of Colonel Tanner [56] ; of 
two Egyptians, [56] ; of Father Legnil- 
cher, [105] ; of a Tartar General, [115] : 
of a Chinese gentleman and a British 
sailor, 7 ; of a very polite French gentle- 
man, 16 ; of a pirate, 40 ; of a hideous 
old woman, 60 ; of a photographer, 88 : 
of two Chinese who had been to Europe, 
95 : of Chin-Tai on the march, 118 : of 
an English gentleman, 156 ; of P«»h-ma, 
177: of Chao the Commissary, 215; of 



ASIAN 

an old man and a boy, 231 ; of a worthy 
fellow, 241, 242 : of General Yang, 254 ; 
of lying litigants, 293 ; of Mr. Mesny, 
312 
Animals and Birds — 
Bear, 212 
Boar, wild, no 
Buffalo, 264 
Cormorant, 293 
Deer, no, 125, 128, 203 
Dog, Tibetan, 131, 241 
Ducks, wild, 293 
Geese, wild, 54 
Goat, wild, 127 
Hare, 128 
Horse, 14, 278 

Jay, 199 

Magpie, 293 

Monkey, 212, 230 

Mule, 13, 14 

Musk-deer, 128, 203 

Oxen, wild, 231 

Panther, 212, 264 

Parrot, 160, 198, 199 

Partridge, 132 

Pelican, 246 

Pheasant, 124, 128, 130, 199, 262 

Sheep, wild, 127 

Tiger, 212 

Wolf, 211, 212 

Yak, 125, 130, 172, 193, 194, 222 
Antiquities of Ch'eng-Tu, 146-149 
Ants, perils from, 311 
Ar4bi, [50], [54], [55], [57] 
Arches, triumphal, 94 
Archipel Potocki of Klaproth, [68] 
* Arrested by the Russians,' [31] 
Art, realistic, 95 

Ashraf, palace of Shah Abbas at, [20] 
Asian problem, Chinese a factor in, 35 



322 



INDEX 



AS 

* As others see us,' translation of Chinese 

poem, 85 
Aspect of mountains, sublime, 212 
Atenze of Cooper (A-tun-tzu), 236 
•Atlas Sinensis,' [85] 
Atrek valley, [20], [22], [23], [24] 
A-tun-tzu, [124], 225, 236 
Ava, steamer, 2, 6 ; country of, 258 
Ayub Khan, [33] 

BA, or Bat'ang, 217 
Baber, Mr., [26], [27], [31], [63], [112I, 

[116], [119-122], [127], [128], [129], [130- 

[i32]i [i3S]i 42, 83, 90, 251 «, 272, 279 « 
Bactria, [88], [89] 
Baian-Kara mountains, [83] 
Baian-Kara-tsit-sir-khana mountains, [85] 
Baillie Fraser, journey of, [21], [23 «] 
Baker, Colonel V., journey to Persia of, 

[20], [22], [23] 
Baku, [20], [38] 
Balint, Herr Gabriel, [137] 
Ballet, a Burmese (Po-^), 315 
Bamboo, the first seen, 234 ; the first large 

one, 248 ; size of, 293 ; uses of, 308 
Bandar Abbas, [37], [38] 
Bank-notes, early use of in China, 37 
Barrow, Mr., remarks on Chinese industry, 

77 
Barygaza (BhrOch), [89] 

Bat'ang, [28], [72], [81], [93], [97], [98], 
[108], [109], [124], [131], [140], 44, 145, 
215, 216, 217, 218, 225 

Beads used for payments. 170 
. Bedouins, the, [50], [53]i [57]. [59L [60] 

Belfast, meeting of British Association at, 
[22] 

Bell, the great, at Peking, 28 

Benghazi, [44], [47], [48] 

Bernard, Mr., [113] 

Besant, Mr., [57], [59], [60] 

Bhamo, [78], [108], [no], [114], [115], [118], 

[123], [140]. 317. 318 
Bhawalpur, [37] 
Bhri-chUy Tibetan name of Upper Kin- 

Sha, [82] 
BhrOch (Barygaza of the ' Periplus '), [89] 
Bichurin, Hyacinth, [loi] 
Biet, Monsieur Alexandre, now Bishop of 

Tibet, 225 
— M. Felix, [97], [98], 
Bifurcation of river near Ch'eng-Tu, [86] 
Bigandet, Bishop, [76] 
Biland Well, [35] 
Birds, see Animals 
Black Man-Tzu (Ju-Kan), 122 



CATHAY 

Blackwood, 68 

Blakiston, Captain, [102], [125], 54 

Boat, for navigating Upper Yang-Tzu, 

description of, 49, 50 ; illustration, 59 ; * 

on the Pei-Ho, 12 
Boccaccio on plague at Florence, 1348, 

272 
Bogle, Mr. [131], 86 
Bokhor Hassdn, a cook, [58] 
Bombay sepoys, [35] 
Bonga, [97] 
Bonze, 219 
Bowls, the wooden (Pu-Ku), of Tibetans, 

187, 232 ; superstition concerning, 237 
Boxes, how packed for travelling, 42 n 
Brackenbury, Colonel, [37] 
Bradford, Colonel, [50] 
Brahmakund, [70] 
Brahmaputra, the theory of, [69] *t seg. ; 

[107] 
Brant, Lieutenant, [55] 
Brassey, Mrs., 25 
Breakfast, alfresco^ 195 
Brick Tea, [130-132] ; manufacture of, 47, 

48 
Bridge, suspension, 136, 165, 259, 265, 

266, 276 ; a haul-bridge, 121 ; ' Sanga, 

116, 273 
Brigham Young, [41] 
Brighton College, [19J, [63 «] 
Brine-wells of Tzu-Liu-Ching, 97-101 
British Association, at Belfast, [22] 
Brius of Marco Polo, [8«] 
Browne, Col. Horace, [no »], [^14], [116], 

[117I 
Bucharest, Captain Gill in, [31] 
Bullies, perils from, 311 
Bumaby, Colonel F., [64] 
Buttered-tea churn, the, 196 
Button, the Chinese, 283 
Byzantium, Imperial, 33 



CAINDU, of Marco Polo, [93], [112] 
Calico, 265 
Camboja, the, see Mekong 
Cameron, Mr., [124] 
Campichu of M. Polo, [138] 
Canal, the Grand, of China, 46 
Carajan of Marco Polo (Ta-Li-Fu), [28], 

[93]f 249 
Carew, Archbishop, [77] 

Carles, Mr., 23 

Carts of Northern China, 12, 13 ; illustra- 
tion, I 
Caspian Sea, the, [20], [23I, 30, 33 
Cathay, 34 « ; a cycle of, 39 



INDEX. 



'5^ 



' CATHAY 

• Cathay artd the way thither,' [8x] 
Cave, a miracle, 135 

Cayley, Dr., [99I 
Ceremonies, Chinese, 338 
Chamkar (or Tchamka), [71] 
Chan^-Kien, a military leader of the Han 

dynasty, [88] 
Chan-Ta, (Sanda of Anderson), 387 
Chao-Chou, near Ta-Li, [1x4] 
Chappa riding, [38], [43] 
Charm boxes, Tibetan, 187 
Charrington, Lieutenant, [57] 
Chauveau, Monseigneur, Bishop of Ta- 

Chien-Lu, [37], [97], [98], 86, 168, 171 ; 

kindly aid from, 179, z8o, 183, 184, 185, 

186 
' Chefoo Convention/ the, [117] 
Cheh-Toh, the *Jeddo' of Cooper, 193, 

Ch'ang-Tu, [84-87], [92], [93], [loi], [108], 
[m], [1331 [134], [136], [140] 

— arrival at, 103 ; departure from for Li- 
Fan-Fu, 105 ; return to, 139 ; described 
by Marco Polo, 141 ; by Martini, 143 ; 
description of modem city, 143 ; possible 
changes at, X43, 144 ; walls of, 143 ; 
' Literary Book Hall Temple, X46 ; anti- 
quities of, X46-X49 ; departure from for 
Ta-Chien-Lu, 155 

Chetang, [7X] 

Ch6t^ Kiang, the, xo6 

Chien-Ch'uan-Chou, arrival at, 34X ; de- 
parture from, 343 ; the plain of, 343 

Chi-Fu, 8, 9 ; convention of, 8, 48 ; good 
effects of convention, 38x 

• Chih-Li,' American steamer, 9 ; on mud- 

bank, 13 ; afloat again, 14 
Chiki, or haul-bridge, 133 n ; illustration, 

131 

China, travelling in, X3, X3 
' China's Millions,' X34 n 

• Chinas,' the, [88] 
Ch'ing-chi-hsien, [93], [93] 

Chinese, cradle of nation, 30 ; absence of 
imagination and originality, 35. 36; 
industry of, 76, 77 ; commercial probity 
of, 89 : their want of ideality, 94, 95 ; 
relentless advance of, 1x3 ; superstition 
of, 38, 50, 63, 87, 114, 13X, 13s, x6i ; 
their ideas of foreigners, 156 : Chinese 
etiquette, 338 

Chinghiz, [87] 

Ch'ing-Tan, arrival at, 68 : rapid of, 69, 70 

Chin-Sha-Chiang (River of Golden Sand), 
I67], [8x], [82], 44, 45, 80, X94: 
Bat'ang river joins it, 3x8 ; no road down 
valley of, 336 ; cross, and quit it, 337 



DEMAVEND 

Chin-Tai, a servant, engagement ofi i4 : 
discovers a weakness for cookery, 36 : 
instructed in bread-making, 43 ; on the 
inarch, xx8 ; tales of, X3x, x6i ; tempers 
of, 177 ; hb method of packing, X93 

Chittagong, [70] 

Ch'ung-Ching, hiring boats for, 46 ; arrival 
at, 83 ; departure from, 90 ' 

Chung-Kiang (or To-Kiang), [86], [87I 

Chu-Sung-Dho (meeting of three waters), 
the ' Jessundee ' of Cooper, 33 x 

Ch'Q-Tung, 364 

Clapham Junction, [69] 

Clarke, Major, [31] 

Clouds in the East, [so] ^ 

Colquhoun, Mr. Archibald, [39], [137T 
1x40], [x4x] 

Compass affected by rocks, 313 

Compressed air used to produce fire, 306 

Confucius, doctrine of, 33, 37 

Constantinople, Captain Gill in, [3 X J 

Conti, Nicok), [89], [95] 

Coolies, elaborate contract made with, 88 : 
at meals, 93 ; loads of, 157, 159 ; playing 
dominoes, X65 

Cooper, Mr. T. T., [35], [36], [61], [74I 
[77], [87], [94 «]i [98 n\ [X03], [xo8-iibl, 
[133], [134] 

^ relics of, x8o ; * Jeddo ' of, 193, X94 : 
'Vermilion river' of, 330; 'Jessundee' 
of, 33 X ; * Atenze ' of, 336 ; ' Duncanson 
Gorge ' of, 334 ; description of the Me- 
kong by, 365 ; letter from, 300 ; mes- 
senger arrives from, 314 ; sends boat for 
us, 3x6 ; meeting with, 3x7 ; death of, 

318 
Costume of self, 17 
Cradle of the Chinese nation, 30 
Criticism, personal, X55, X56 
Crystal Palace, [X9] 

Curiosity, frantic, at Kuan-Hsien, 107 • 
Currency, Tibetan, X70 
Curtains, travelling, of Chinese, xs4 



DALAI-LAMA, the, X73 
Dalrymple, Alexander, [73 1 
Dalton, Major-General, [75] 
D'Anville, [68 «], [73], [75], [79], I83I 
Darah-gaz, [33], [33], [34] 
Darchando (Ta-Chien-Lu), [X32] 
Dardistan, the Shinas of, [88] 
Davenport, Mr., [xx6], [XX9] 
David, Abb<5, [x38] 
Davis Sir John, [100] 
Demavend, [3x] 



324 



.INDEX. 



< 



DENNISTOUN 

Dennistoun, Captain, [51] 

T)eserts, I33] 

Desfl^hes, Moaseigneur, Bishop of 

Ch'uiiK-Ching, 83 
T)esgod«n», Abh6. [81], [97], [98], [99], 

[iia], [114], [124], [133], [134 «], 315, 

225 
Dibong, the, discussion of course of, [73] 

et setf, 
J)i-chMy Tibetan name of Upper Kin-Sha, 

[82] 
Dickens, [74] 
Dihong, the, discussion of course of, [69], 

et seg. 
Dimyrike (the Tamul country), [89] 
T>tnner, a Chinese, 24-26, 151, 152 
Djokjokarta, the Sultan of, [94] 
I>ong, Gorge of (Cooper's * Duncanson 

Gorge '), 234 
D'Orrille, [89] 
Doudart de la Gr^, Captain, explora- 

tion of the Mekong by, [103] 
Douglas, Professor, on the birthplace of 

Chinese nation, 30 
Drought, threatenings of, 153 ; at Yun- 

Nan-Fu, 250 
Du Halde, [69 «], [70] 
Duncanson Gorge of Cooper, the (Dong), 

234 
Dupr^, Admiral, [108] 
Durand, Abb6, [80] ; death of, [98] 
Dyer, Mr. Bernard, his analysis of water 

a^ Deung-Do-Lin, 937 n 



EAST, Colonel, [65] 
Eden, Lieutenant, captures KaiTsa, 

[77] 
KI-Arish, [50], [53], [54] 
Elburz mountains, [21] 
' Encyclopaedia Britannica,' [looj, 30, 32, 

33 
Erh-Hai, lake (Ta-Li), 247, 249, 255, 256, 

257 
Ethnology of Eastern Tibet, [125 128] 
Etiquette, Chinese, 150, 238 
P:tna, [43] 
Examinations, public, X03 ; military, 24?, 

277 



FARWA, [44! 
Fast, a, 250 
Fatehpur, [36] 
Fedden, Mr., [102] 
Fei-Yueh-Ling (Fly beyond Range), 164 



FU-CHOU 

Female decorations, aox, 009, 283, 291, 

315 
Feng-Tung-Kuan (Wind Cave Pass), 130 
Fire-wells at Tzu-Liu-Ching, 98, 99, loi 
Firishta, [91] 
Fitzroy, Captain, [54] 
Fleuve-Bleu, Le, French appellation for 

the Yang-Tzu-Chiang, 45 
Flowers and Plants : — 

Azalea, 134 

Buttercup, 194, 196, aoo 

Castor-oil plant, x8 

Cotton-plant, 18 

Creepers, flowering, x^o; gigantic, 307 

Crocus, purple, 124 

Delphinum Grttndiflorum^ (possessing 
the property of destrojnng lice 196 

Ferns, 63, ixo, 134, X35, 279 ; tree, 308 

Flowers, bright yellow, in great m 
aoo, 228 

— wild, 126, X33, X62, 194, 196, 

233 

Indigo, 348 

Iris, 124 

Lily, 136 

Lotus, 130, 148 

Peony, 134 

Poppy (Opium), 79 

Rape, 56, 76 

Rhododendron (called Ta-Ma by 
Tibetans), 212, 232 

Rhubarb, 128, 203 

Rose, 126 

Ta-Ma, see Rhododendron. 
Fra Mauro, [95] 
Fruits and Vegetables : — 

Apples, 78 

Apricots, 78 

Cabbages, 62, 205 

Chestnut, 262, 263 , 

Chilies, 261 

Cucumbers, 155, 292 

Currants, 194 

Date, Chinese, 18 

Gooseberries, 194 

Loquot (Pi-Pa in Chinese, Enobotr 
Japonica), no 

Melon, 155 

Peaches, 78, 215 

Pears, 78 

Pi-Pa or Loquot, iio 

Plums, 78 

Potatoes, 1x5, 128, 205 242 

Turnips 206 

Walnuts, 258 

Yams, 77 
Fu-Chou, 44, 79 



INDEX, 



325 



GAK-BO 

GAK-BO TSANPU {Km-^u Uangbo 
of Chinese), [77] 
Gandara (Khien-to-wei ?), [91] 
Gamier, Lieutenant, [96], [99 n\ [104-107], 

[134I. 247«»299 
Gaver Bey, [54] 

* Geographical Magazine,' [a2], [68 «] 
Geese, wild, on the Yang-Tiu, 54 
Gelatine, the foundation of every Chinese 

delicacy, 35 
Gheindu of Marco Polo, [93], [112] 
Ghilan, [4a], [43] 
Giangie Long, [72] 

Giorgi, Alphabetum Tibetanum, hisi, [70] 
Giiu^ero, visit to, by Captain Gill, [31] 
Gnia-mtso of Klaproth [83] 

* Godar,' a, [41] 

Goitre, prevalence of, 236, 237 

Gold, from Lit'ang, 179 

Golden Sand, river of, Chin-Sha-Chiang), 

44, 45, 80, 194 ; Bat'ang riverjoins, 218 ; 

no road down valley of, 226 ; cross, and 

quit it, 227 
Goorkhas, the, [35], [36] 
Gordon, Mr. R., [68 n\ 
Gorges of the Yang-Tzu entered, 63 : 

gorge of Niu-Kan, 66, 67 ; of Mi-Tsang, 

71 ; of Wu-Shan, 72 ; a luxuriant gorge, 

134 ; a desperate gorge, 231 : gorge of 

Dong, 234 ; Hogg's gorge, allusion to, 

265 
Government, the local, of Ta-Chien-Lu, 

172 
Great wall of China, excursion to, 22 ; 

builder of, 149 
Grosvenor, Hon. T. G., [116], [120), 299 
Grove, Lieutenant, [54], [55 «]. 
Grueber, Father, [89] 
Guide, description of our, 2x4 
Gyd^ a Tibetan word, [126] 
Gya-Ut-Sindongy a great bend of the Tsan- 

pu, [71] 
Gyamdo, [72] 

Gyami^ a Chinese dialect, [128] 
Gyiriing, [126] 



HACKNEY, borough of. Gill stands 
for, [24] 
• Hankow,' steamer, 44 
Han-kow, 45 ; arrival at, 46 ; factor>' at, 

47 ; departure from, 50 
Harman, Lieutenant, [71], [73 «] 
Haul Bridge, a, i2X 
Hebcr, Bishop, [67] 
He-Shui (Black River), [85] 



IRAWADI 

Hewett, Sir W., V.C, K.C.B., [54], Cssl. 

[57], [58], [59I, [60] 

Hiang-Kouan of Gamier, (Shang-Kuan), 
247 « 

History, characteristics of Chinese, 33 

Hiung-Nu, 32, 33 

Ho-Chiang-P'u, village of, 259 

Ho'Chu-ka, 204 

Hodgson, Mr. Brian, [1x3], [126], [132 n\ 

Hogg's Gorge, 265 

Hok'eo (or Nia-Chu), [xa4l ; $€€ Nia-Chu. 

Homs, [44] 

Ho-Mu-Spu, village of, 276 

Hong-Kong, 5, 6 

Hooker, Sir Joseph, [i2x] 

Horace della Penna, see Orazio della 
Pinna. 

Ho-Se-Wu, 20 

Hoskins, Admiral, [50], [51], [53]. [58] 

Hostility of the Lamas, 176 
Houses, form of, in A-Tun-Tzu, 237 
House-fittings, Chinese, 19 ; Tibetan, 201 
Hsia-Kuan, 256, 257 ; market day at, 258 
Hsia-wu-ti, of the Han dynasty, [88] 
Hsueh-Shan, 127 ; alleged terrors of, 131 : 

summit of, 132 
Hua-Ling-P'ing, 164 
Huai-Li, see Hui-Li-Chou, 
Huang-Ho, the, [81], [85] 
Huang-Lien-P'u, 261 
Hue, Abb6, [68], [80], [8a], [100], [loi «] 

[131] : on Chinese dinners, 24, 25 
Hui-Hui (Mahometans), rebellion of, 5>5i 
Hui-Li-Chou (or Huai-Li), [X04], [133I 
Hunan, Province of, [105], [114]. [»39l. 
Hwen-T'sang, memoirs of, [90 «] 
Hyacinth Bichurin, [lox] 
Hyde, General, on the mpee,, [X31I 



T BEX, [21] 

J- Ibn Batuta, the traveller, [92] 

I-Ch'ang, [xx8] ; Consul to, 48 ; arrival at, 
57 ; disturbances at, 581 60, 61 : depar- 
ture from, 62 

Ilayar Khan [22] 

Hi, or Kuldja, 13 « 

'Im Femen Osten,' [137 «], \xAon\ 

Imam Reza, shrine of, 175 

Industry of Chinese, 76, 77 

Inn, a Chinese, 18, 19, 20, 9a 

Interpreter engaged, X77. • 

I-Ran, or I -Jen (the Man Tzu), 119, 120 

Irawadi, theory of the, [68] tf/ seq.^ I106I; 
[107], [114] ; first sight of, 317 



Y 2 



326 



INDEX, 



IRRIGATION 

Irrigation, a method of, 91 
Ismailia, [52], [54] 



JAGAT SHER, a Nepalese Envoy, [98 
Ja-Ra (King of Mountains), 198 
Jaxartes river, 33 • 

Jeddo of Cooper, 192, 194 
Jen-ma, 18 z 

Jessundee of Cooper (Chfi-sung-Dho), 331 
Jewellery, largely worn by Tibetans, 171, 

aox ; abundance of, at Yung-Ch'ang, 270, 

271 
yid£ya^ of Ibn Batuta, [92] 
Jigar-Kungkar, [70] 
Jigatze (or Jigarchi), [75] 
Jinnyrickshaw (a public conveyance in 

Shanghai), 6 ; accident to, 7 
John Brown, [46] 

Ju-Kan (Black Man>Tzti), Z22, 123 
Jung Bahadur, [98] 
Jung-C'hang-Hsien, 9a 
Jung'la, a higl| peak, [71] 

KABUL, [88] 
Kahnpur, [37] 
Kaiisa, a Mishmi chief, [77] 
Kaingma, a Shan principality, [103] 
Ka-Ji-La, 197, 198 
Kalat-i-Kila, [35] 

Kamrud {Kdmnip f), the Raja of, [91] 
KdmrHPi the Raja of, [91] 
Kang, a, described, 19 
Kang-hi, document compiled by order of, 

[70I, [85], [121], 146 
Kang-Shi, or Khang-Hi, Emperor, 146 
Kan-Lan-Chan, 280 
Kan-Ngai, 289 
Kantara, [53] 
Kar&chi, [38], [39] 
Karahokah of Anderson (T'ai-P'ing- 

Chieh), 293 
Kardjaly the mountain of. [92] 
Karam Khan, [36} 
Kara-Ussu of the Mongols, [85] 
Karens, the, a tradition of, [135] 
Kashgar, 33 ; proposed journey to, given 

»Pf 14s 
Kazbek, [43] 

Kenpu (or Kangpu), the, course of, [75] et 

seq. 
• Kestrel,' H.M.S., at Hankow, 48 
Kew-Hom, Shan name of eastern branch 

of Irawadi, [79] 
Kb&ja-Rabbi, mositue of, [42] 
Khalil-Atflc, Gill's dragoman, [43!, [44], 

45' 58I 



KWAT- 

Kham, a province of Tibet, [80] 

Khamti country, [109] 

Khanki, [36] 

Khatas (scarves of felicity), z8a 

Khien-to-wei (Gandhara ?), [90] 

Khitan (Liao Tartars), 33, 34 

Khiu-shi of Klaproth, [79] 

Khorasan, desert of, [2z], [23 m], [41] 

Khoten, 33 

Khur&s&n, battle in, [92] 

Khushk-i-Nakhud (Maiwand), [33] 

Kia-ching, or Kia-king, fifth Emperor of 

the present Man-Chu dynasty, X46 
Kiang-Hung, [103) 
Kiang-Ka, Government of, [97] 
— (* Vermilion River ' of Cooper), 230 
Kiansuy (= Kiang-Shui, 'Waters of the 

Kiang'), [85], 14? 
Kiating-fu, [87], [109] 
Kie-na-tong, on the Salwen, [98] ' 
Kien-Ch'ang, the Caindu or Ghiendu of 
: Marco Polo, [93], [112] 
Kien-wei, rapid of, [87] 
Kiepert, his great map of Asia, [81] 
Kila't, stronghold of Nadir Shah, [21J, 

[aslf [3Sl 

Kin (Niuchih Tartars), 33, 34 

King, Mr., Consul at I-Ch'ang, 48 

King of mountains (Ja-Ra), 198 

Kinsha, see Chinsha. 

Kirmin, [38], [39], [40], [42] 

Kiun-Liang-Fu, military provision store- 
keeper, 172 

Klaproth, J, [68], [74], [75], [76], [82 «], 
[83], [85 «], [loi], [124 «] 

Koko Nor, [xi8], [126], [139], 128, 129 

Kotali, [34] . 

Kreitner, Lieutenant, [137] 

Krick and Bour>', MM., murdered at 
Sim€, [77], [99 «], [109] 

Kuan-Hsien, [85], curiosity of people at, 
Z07 : irrigation works at, X09 

Kublai Khan, [92], [93] 

Kudeu, MdsCis at, [28], [X34I 

Kuei-Chou-Fu, 73 ; salt manufacture at, 

74, 75 
Kuen-Luen mountains, [85] 
Kuh-Kala-Asker, [39] 
Kuldja, Z3 n 

Kunbum, Convent of, [X39] 
Kuon-hien (Kwan-hsien of Gill), [85] 
Kurds, a colony of, [22] 
Ku-ts'Kiang, course of, [77] et seq. ; [zo6], 

[Z07] 
Kutung people, the, of Mr. Baber, [29] 
Kwat, [35] 
Kwat Mandai [36] 



LA COITPERIE, M. df 
Lulronc ItUuids, s 
Ludy Skipper, Ibie, 48, 4g, I 

of, S4 
Lb Gr4e, Doudart de, {jplain, [10J-I05I, 



INDEX. 




MARCARY 




1. Lu 


-KiinB(o 


r Nu-Ki».«), «, 


Solo 


Lu 








Ibu Lu 


ing-ChiSDi 


i '"Shuaj-Li, 




River), 377, =78 




>$\ Lung-ch'iun 


RL«r,.«Sl«* 


■li 


Lu 


ng-Zung-- 


Nimg, ajj 




of, Lllilil (or LI; 


.11.), [jB], [.091, ( 


U3l 



>r Honk, 3iS : Lamu a 



LcEuilcbcr, M., [96I, [: 
Letten oT credit, use of, 



M»-Fn, Ihe, (hone-boy), ij : Iht no 

Fu, iSo: dre» of, 134: aiiDIhci 

Ma-Fu, JSS 
IMagadha, the King of, [90] 
Mahabharat, IHS] 
Wahithin, (B,!, I90] 
Maharib, [S9l 

MahomEtan^ r>l*llion of, =,1), .5' 
Mahomaied Bakhiiy^, Gist Husn 

conqu«otofBtnfial,l9i] 
Mahomnwd Tughtsk, iniane T«U« 

l9'l- (9=1 
Maiward, bailie of, [js], [33]. (34) 
Malabathruni (Casia leava), [89] 
Mulaccs, Straits of, 3 
Malta, UH. Uil 



Liao Tartars (Kbiian), 33, 34 
U-Fan-Fu, |ii7J, 104; "ii™l "1 "«: 

desonptior-of,..? 
Life-boau «n the Yang-Tifl, 6j, «S 
Li-hsidi-lai, ^« Li-aeh-Tai. 
U-Hung-Chang, Chinest Minlsler, B, 9 
Li-Kiang, city of, 194], [loyl, [109^ Ci4ot 
Li-Sieh-Tai, [iijl, I117I the mother of, 

travelling, aSj ; lisll from, 397 



Ltkk-aflra, ' lattoed people,' [70) 
E^los, the. [lasl, [nq, (lajl, ["8], [135] 
Lu-Chau, a ciiy on the Vang-Tifl, [S61 



A, an the Upper Inwadi, [1119] 
t.g, Mr., fl'7 



Manii of Marco Polo, 141 

Mium Polo, [34], IjB), (BjX [84I. [86], [89I, 
(9»1, l93!. l™]. («3l, tio7l. [■"]. l'3'i, 
[13^1 : hii dcKriplioD of Peking, 99 ; of 
Ch'^ng-Tu, 141 : of Catajan, 149 ; of 
the Lake of Yfln-Nan, 149 ; of Yfln-Nan 
rait, 9S7 I of the valley of Ihe Salwen, 

Margwy, Mr., [.9], [61], [114-118], [™:, 

[■36I, (url, 30. 
Margary PTxlamatiem, the, I117J, [iiB] 



328 



INDEX, 



MARIGNOLLI 

^Llarignolli, John, a puzzle>headcd travel- 

ler, [8x] 
Maris, the, [34], [36], (37] 
Market of I-Ch'ang, peculiarity of, 62 
Markham, Mr., his book on Tibet, [75], 

[132 «1 
Martaban, [80] 

Martini, Padre, [85] 

Massagetic customs, [xxa] 

* Mauvais P^s,' a, 137 

Mazanderan, forests of, [21] 

Mazures, Thomine des. Bishop, [76], [79], 

[106], [114I 
McCarthy, Mr., [123], [124] 
McLeod, General, [103], [140] 
M'NeiU, Sir John, [23] 
Ma, a Chinese Christian, 88 
Medicine Mountains, 194, 204 ; ascent of 

one, 200 
Mekong river, the (Lan-Tsang), [80], 

[103], [xo8] ; water-parting between, and 

Chin-Sha-Chiang, 235 ; crossing of, 265 
M<imoires concemant les Chinois, [70] 
Menu, laws of, [88] 
Merv, [37], [38I, [39] 
Meshhed, [21], [22], [38], [39l,.Ual 
Mesny, Mr., joins Captain Gill, [26], [44], 

[128], [129], [136], 103, 144, 303, 309, 312 

Meter Abu Sofia, [56 «], [57], [58], [59] 

Miao-tzu tribes, [133], 31 

Mien, king of, 268 », 318 

Min (or Wen river), I67], [84], [85], [87], 
[102], [109], [125], 109 

Ming dynasty, 144 

Miniak-thsuo, [85] 

Min-shan, the, [84] 

Miracle cave, a, 135 

Mishmi Hills, the, [69], [109] 

Mi-Tsang gorge, 71 

Mahochintan (Mahachinasthtoi), an In- 
dian name of China, [90] 

Momein [78] ; see T'eng-yueh. 

Monastery of W6n-Shu-Yuan, 146 

Mong-kou, [84] 

Montgomerie, Col. T. G., [75] 

Morgan, Mr. Delmar, [xoz h] 

Mormons, the, [41] 

Moscow, great bell of, 29 

Mosquito nets, 154 

Mossos (or M(is(is), [109], [133] 

Moufflon, [21] 

Mou-Pin, disturbances of, X05 

Muangchan (Shun-ning-fu of the Chinese), 
[103] 

Muir, Sir William, [99 n\ 

Munshi, [39], [40] 



OPIUM 

Murus-ussu (or Murut-ussuX 'winding 
water, ' a name of Upper Yang-Tzu, [82] 
Miis<is (the Nashi), [28] 
Mu-tien-v/ang, king of the MOsds, [28] 
Myit-gyi, the, [X07I 
Myit-nge, the, [xo6] 



NADIR SHAH, his stronghold of 
Kila't, [21], [23] 
Nain Singh, the Pundit, [7o]» [7X], [72], 

[75]i [132 «] 
Nakhl, [57], [60], C6x] 
Nalut, [44] 
Nam-Bdm, the, [zo6] 
Nam-mao, the, [xo6] 
Nam-kid, the, [zo6] 
Nan-chao, a Shan kingdom, [93] 
Narrative, Mr. Baber's, [27] 
Narrow escape of Captain Gill, [22] 
Nashi (the Mdsds), [28] 
Nepal, Chinese name for, x8o « 
Nescradin, 269 
Nestorian tablet, the, [X383 
New Mandalay, 3x8 
Newspaper correspondents, [5X], [56] 
Newton, 35 
New-year festival, 52 
Nga-Ra-La-Ka, 208 
Ngo-Lo, 197 

Nia-chuofGill, [83I, [X98] 
Nifish, [54] 
Nimja Atik, [43] 
Nine Nails Mountain, the, 122 
Ning-Yuan-Fu, [93], [xx2], [1x9] 
Nishapur, turquoise mines of, [23 »] 
N-m-g, the expl(»«r, [7X], [72] 
Niuchih Tartars (KinX 33 
Niu-Kan gorge, scenery of, 66 
Nom-Khfin-ubashi, chsdn of, [85] 
Northbrook, Lord, [50], [51I, [63] 
Nottingham, Gill stands for, [24] 
Nu-Kiang (or Lu-Kiang), see Salwen. 
Numerals of Mantzii and Sifan compared, 

[X27], [X28] 



O 'DONOVAN, Mr., [4a] 
Odoric, Friar, 34, 45 

'Om Mani Pemi Horn,' the uixiversal 
Buddhist prayer, 171, X74, x8x, 209 

Omi, moimt, a place of Buddhist pilgri- 
mage, [X2X] 

Opium, cultivation of, 79; smokii^ of, 
prevalent ia YQn-Naa, 239; proverb 
concerning, 239 ; laziness of oiMum- 
smo'cers, 242, 245 



INDEX 



329 



ORAZIO 

Orazio della Penna, [70], [8a »], [132 h\ 
Omamentsof people of Ta-Chien-Lu, 171 ; 

of Tibetan women, aoz, aoa 
Owen, professor, 35 
Oxus river, the, [88], 30 



PA- 1 people, the, 399 
Pai (a hundred), 158 » 
Pai-Chang-I, I57i 15^ 
Paidza^ a grain somewhat resemblii^ rice, 

243 
Palaces, city of, arrival at, 3x8 
Palibothra (or Patna), [89] 
Palmer, Professor E. H., [50], [53], [56], 

[57], [58], [59], [60] 
Palmerston, Lord, [xoc] 
Pamir, [28] 
Pan-Ch'iao (slab bridge), in Ssu-Ch'oan), 

1x2 ; (in Yunnan), native description of 

road to, 267 ; town of, 268 
Panth^s (or Panthays), [93], [99 h\ [104I, 

[X09], 251 n 
PaOf a package of brick tea, [130], 159 
Parentage and education of Captain Gill, 

[X9-20] 
Paris, Geographical Society, awards medal 

to Captain Gill, [30] 
Patna, [89] 

Pauthier, M., [85], [xox] 
Pe-Chi-Li (Chih-Li), province, xo 
Pehma, an interpreter, 177 ; returns home, 

2x6 
Pei-Ching, correct spelling of Peking, 21 « 
Pei-Ho, navigation of, xo 
Peking, 8, 12 ; arrival at, 2x ; ' Temple of 

Heaven ' at, 23 ; summer palace at, 27 ; 

bell temple at, 28 ; departure from, 4X 

• Periplus,' the, [89] 
Persia, [20], [40], [4X] 
Pe-shui-Kiang, ' White-water river,' [84) 
Phari, [72] 

Phayre, Major, his mission to Ava, [68] 

Phison of Paradise, the, [8x] 

Photography under difficulties, 87 

' Pickwick,' [74] 

Pietro della Valle, 20 

Pigeon- English, used at Shanghai, 4X 

Pinchon, Monseigneur, Bishop of C'keng- 

Tu, visit to, X04 
Pi-Pon-Tzu, Chinese name for Nepal, x8o 

• Pirate,' the Woo-Sung, 40 

Plague, a recent, 272; the plague at 
Florence in X348 ; and of London, 272 
lants, see Flowers and Trees. 
Population, diminution of, in YQn-Nan, 
26X, 262 



ROMAN 

Port Said, [5X], [5a] 
Potocki, Count, [68 n\ 
Potosi, altitude of, 205 n 
Prayer-cylinder, the, or ftayer-whed, X74 ; 

endeavours to buy a, 237 
Prejevalaki, Colonel, [82], [xox»], [x26), 

X89M 
Probity, commercial, of Chinese, 89 
Proverb, Tibetan, a, [x3o] 
Provdt, Monsieur, French missionary at 

Ch'ung-Ch'ing, 83 
Prun, village of, [X09] 
Ptolemy, [74], [89] 
Puchf Mr., [xoo] 

Pu-Ku, a wooden bowl, 187, 83a, 237 
Pundit Nain Singh, the, [70], [7a], [75] 
Pung-Shi Q Pomsee' of Anderson), attack' 

at, 304 
Pushtu, [74] 



QUETTA,[34] 



RAIN, superstition about, 259 ^ 

Rajanpur, [36] 
Ra'kho, [127] 
Ra-Ma-La, ascent of, 200 
Ramsay, CoL G., Resident at Katmandu, 

[98], [99 «] 
Rangamatti, [70] 

Rangoon, 3x8 '1 

Rapids on the Yang-Tzu, 65, 66 ; passage 

ofCh'ing-Tan, 68-7X 
Rasselas, the happy valley of, [21] 
Ra-ti, the ' Tsamba' of Cooper, 2xx 
Raverty, Major, [91] 
Rawlinson, Sir H., [88] 
Red ba^in of Ssu-ch'uan, the, xox 
Regis, Pfere, [70] 
Rennell, [69], [70], [71 «], [79] 
Renou, Abb^, [97] 
Restaurant, characteristics of a Chines^, 

288, 289 * 
Rice, as food, 55 : used to repair vessels, 

80 ; culture of, 9X 
Richthofen, Baron von, [25], [30], [4r], [66], 

[84«], [86], [87], [90], [93], [xxx], [112], 

[x2o], 2, X3 «, lox, 247 
Ritter, [74], [79 n\ [8o«], [xox], X43 
River of Golden Sand, jr^Chin*Sha-Chiang. 
Rivers, direction of, in Western China, 235 
- Road and Rivers, relation between, 225 
Robeson, Colonel, [46] 
Roemah, village of, [jo8rI, [X09I 
Roman Catholic missions in China, E96J 



330 



INDEX. 



ROYAL 

Royal Eng'neen, [ao] 

Royal Geographical Society awards 
medal to Captain Gill, [ag], [50], [x3o], 
ff23i»], [124 «], [178 «], [129 m], [135] 

Ru-Ching, mountain^ 192 

Rupees, ctirrent in Tibet, [131], 170 



SADAM, Tibetan name of Li-Kiang-Fu, 
[28] 
Sadiya, [69I, [99], [106), [109] 
Safid Tok, [36] 
Saidabad, [30] 
Saigon, 4 

Sailors, good qualities of Chinese, iz 
Salt, Chin&ie, manufacture of, 73, 75 ; 

Marco Polo's cakes of, 257, 268 
Salt Lake City, 141] 
Salt- wells of Tzu-Liu-Ching, 95-101 
Salwen River, the, [78] et seq. ; [97], [106], " 

274, 275 
Sam^, village of, [72], [77], [109I 
Sanang Setzen, [83 n\ 
Sand-ridge, a miraculous, 1x4 
Sanda, of Anderson (Chan-Ta), 287 
Sao Pa (the three plains), 'Tsanba' of 

Cooper, 211 
Sanpoo, the, see Tsanpu. 
Sarel, Colonel, [102] 
Saunders, Mr. Trelawney, [75] 
Schereschewsky, Bishop, [102] 
Schmidt's Ost-Mongolen, [83] 
ScobeleiT on Russian policy, [32] 
Scott, Mr. David, [70] 
Sculls, use of the great, on Chinese junks, 

81 
Sepoys, Bombay, [35] 
Seres, the, [89] 
Servants, the, threatened desertion, 177 : 

discharge of, at Bat'ang, 216 
Seymour, Captain, [52] 

Sir Beauchamp, [53], [58 «] 
Shah Abbas, palace of, at Ashraf, [20] 
Sha-Lu, arrival at, 240 
Shan Kingdom, a, [93] 
— lady, costume of a, 283 
Shanghai, 6, 7, 8, 40-44 
Shang-Kuan (the upper barrier), the 

' Hiang-Kouan ' of Garnier, 247 
Shan-hai-Kuan, [^5] 
Shan-Si province, Chinese settlement in, 

30» 3* 
Sha-Shih, 55 

Sha-Wan (the sandy hollow), 225 
Shazada, the, [40] 
Shih-Pan-Fan (Stone Slab-house Moun- 

Uin), sas 



SUMMER 

Shiloyta (Stladitya), [90] 
Shinas, the, of Dardistan, [88] 
Shin-Tu, [88] 

Shu, an ancient name of Ssu-Ch'uan, [88] 
Shuang-Lin, the march to, 155 
Shuang-Pao (double gem), z8o 
Shuay-Li river, see Shw^li. 
Shun-ning-fu, Shwen-li of the Burmese, 

and Muangchan of the Shans, [103] 
Shwdi, the, [74] et seq.^ 275, 277 
Siang-ling pass, [112] 
Sibi, [33], [34] 

Sicaw (Ma-Mou), 296 et seq. 
Si-Fan, the, [125], 127, 130, 133 
Sinae, the, [89] 
Sin-da-fu of Marco Polo, [84], [86], [92I, 

I4X 
Si-ngan-fu, [138], 13 n 
Singapore, arrival at, 3 
Sirj&n, [38] 
Sladen, Colonel, his expedition, [78], [zzo], 

[112], [114], 297 
Slavery in Tibet, 222 
Small-pox, fatality of, among Tibetans, 

z88 
Smyth, Admiral, his address to Royal 

Geographical Society in 1851, [100] 
Snow-Dragon Mountain Hsueh-Lung- 

Shan), Z19 
Snow Mountain, the(Hsueh-Shan), alleged 

terrors of, 131 
Snowy Mountains near Ta-Li-Fu, 249 
Sdkpa, the, [126] 
Sdkyfll, [126] 

Soldiers, dress of Chinese, xo6 
Ssu-Mao (Esmok of McLeod), [140] 
Steamers on the Yang-Tzu, 45 
St. George's Island, accident to junk at, 

79 
St. John, Sir Oliver, [22], [23], [51] 

St. Martin, Vivien de, [88] 

St. Paul's, burial of relics in, [63] 

Stone Slab>house Mount, the (Shih-Pan- 

Fang), 125 
Stores taken by Gill from Shanghai to 

Chung-Ch'ing, 42 
Subanshiri, the, discussion of course of, 

[69] et seq. 
Sa-chau (or Swi-fu), [67], [82], [86], [87], 

[xoi], [109] 
Suk-chu, a branch of the Salwen, [80] 
Sukchur of M. Polo, [139] 
Suliman, Sultan of Ta-li (Tu-Wen-Hsiu), 

[93]* 251 
* Sultan,' use of the title in Ta-Li-Fu, 

[94] 
Summer Palace at Peking, visit to, 26 



index: 



331 



SU-MU 

S i-M 1 (white Man-Tzu), 123 

Sung-Pan-Ting [135], 104 ; situation of, 
127 

Surong Mountains, 205 

Suspension bridges, at Hdao-Ho-Ying, 
136 ; at Lu-Ting-Ch'iao, 165 ; at Yang- 
Pi, 359 : over the Mekong, 365 ; over the 
Salwen, 277 

Swi-fu, see Su-Chau. 

Symes, Colonel, his * Mission to Ava,' [73] 

Sz^chenyi, Count Bela, [137], [138] 



'J^ABAKAT-I-NAS^ Rf, [91] 

"^ Table-manners and customs, 150-153 

Ta-Cha-Ho, 67 

Ta-Chien-Lu, etymology of, [27]; Gill's 
route from, [30] ; references to, [72], [83], 
(87], [93]» [97], [108], ["4l» [130]. 167- 

Tachindo, or Ta-Chien-Lu, see latter. 
Tahia, or Bactria, [88] 
T'ai-Hsiang-Ling-Kuan (Pass of Great 

Minister's Range), x6i 
T'ai-P'ing-Chieh, the *Karahokah' of 

Anderson, 293 
T'ai-P'ing-P'u, 259 
Tai-tsung, an emperor of the T'ang 

dynasty, [90] 
Ta-Kuan 1 Great Pass), 162 
Ta-li-fu, [28], [29], [81], [93], [94I, [96], 

[99«], [102], [103], [104], [105], [108I, 

[109], [112], [£i8], [120], [123], [140], 243, 

246-258 
Ta-li-Shao, 267 
Tangutans^ the, [126] 
Tanner, Co'onel, [56] 
Tantah, [61] 

* I'a-Paing,' steamer on Irawadi, 3x8 
Ta-peng River, the, [95], 287 
Tarchenton (Ta-Chien-Lu), [132] 
'J'a-so, pass of, 213 
Tattooing, 300 
Tatu River, [122] 
Ta-Ving River, the, [95] 
Tazar, a place north of Ta-Chien-Lu, [127] 
Tazedo (Ta-Chien-Lu), [132] 
Tchamka (or Chamkar), [71] 
Tcha-mou-to, or Tsiamdo, [81 n\ 
Tchitom-chu, the, of D'Anville, [79] 
Tea-trade with Tibet, [129]; its kind, 

159 : used for making payments, 183 ; 

buttered tea, 184 
Teashop, a wayside, 92 
Teen Shan mountains, 30 
Teheran, [20], [22], [38] 
Telescope, the, causes amusement, 56 



TURQUOISE 

Temple Djamga, [71] 

Temple of Heaven at Peking, 23 

Temple Sengdam, [71] 

T'eng-Yueh (or Momein), (78], [95], [xxo], 

[1x2), [xx5), [120], 279, 280, 282 
Terrors of the hills, alleged, 131, x6i 
Thein-ni, attempt to reach, 1x03] 
Thin^ mentioned in the * Periplus,' [89] 
Th<5ch(i, [126] 
Thomas, Mr. Edward, [91] 
Thomson, Mrs. Bowen, [43 n\ 
lliree Kingdoms, the, 33 
Thull, [36I 
Tibetans, quantity of jewellery worn by, 

171, 20X, 202 ; independence of, 177 ; 

chief food of, 179 ; contrast between 

Tibetans and Chinese, 178, X79 ; houses 

of, X96, 201 ; female decorations, 201 ; 

have no dread of mountain passes:, 233 ; 

superstition concerning their wooden 

bowls, 237 
Tien, a part of Yunnan, [88] 
T'ien-Ching-P'u, Mount, 261 
Tien-Tsin, 10, 11, X2, 15 
Tiflis, [20], [38] 

* Times,' the, correspondent, [44] 
Ting-ko, 191, X95 
T'i-Tzu-Yi, X36 
Ti-Zu, 19s 
To, the, [84] 
Tracking on the Yang-Tzu, vicissitudes of, 

53.71 
Transport arrangements, 172 

Trees cut down to impede travellers, 297 

Tribes of Eastern Tibet, [125-128] 

Tripoli, [43], [44], [48] 

Triumphal arches (P'ai-Lou), 94 

Tsaleh, 231 

Tsaleh-La-ka, 232 

Tsanba (meal of grilled oats), 192 

— of Cooper (San*Pa, or Ra-Ti), 2xx 

Tsang, West Central Tibet. [70] 

Tsanpu, the, discussion of course of, [68] 

et seq.^ [106] 
Ts'ao-Hsieh-P'ing (straw-sandal flat), 162 
Tsefan of Mr. Cooper, [109] 
Tseku, on the Upper Mekong, [98], [xo8] 
Tsiamdo, [80], [8x] 
T'sin-Shih-Hwang-Ti, Emperor builder 

of Great Wall, X49 
Tsitkaw, [xi6] 
Tung-ho, the, [87] 
Tung-Kwan, 30 

Tung-Ting Lake, entrance to, 52 
Tunis, [43] 

Turkish characteristics, [45], [47] 
Turquoise beads used as money, 170 



333 



INDEX: 



TU-WftN-HSIU 

Tu-w^n-hsiu Sultan of the Panthays (so 

called), [93J, 351 
Tzu-Liu-Ching, salt>wells of, 95-iox 



U(or Wei), [70] 
• Ugly Chief of Homely Virtues,' 
the, 283 
U-Kiang, the, [107] 
Ulo, the, a gigantic scull, 49 
Ulster type of religion, [99 n] 
Unchan, or Vochan (Yung-Chang), [93] 
Urumchi, 145 



VAN de Putte, Samuel, [82] 
' Vanity Fair,' articles in, by Captain 
GUI, [31] 
Vermilion River, the (Kiang-Ka), 330 
Village, the first Man-Tzu, iix 
Vochan of Marco Polo (Yung-Chang- FuX 

[35], [93I 
Volumes, comparative, of Assam Rivers, 

[73] 



WADE, Sir Thomas, [n6J, 8, 12, 281 
Wfidi Kahalin, [59] 
W4di Mijinin, [44] 
W4di Sadr, [59], [63] 
Wahab, Mr., untimely death of, [140] 
Walker, General, [72], [74] 
Wall, the Great, of China, 22, 149 
Wang-Gi-La, 203 

Wang-hwen-tse, a Chinese envoy, [9 «] 
Wang-Tua-Shan, 27 
Warangaly of Ibn Batuta, [92] 
Warren, Sir Charles, [56], [58 J, [oo], [63] 
Wa-Ssii-Kou, 167 

Water of Deung-Do-Lin, analysis of, 237 
Watson, Captain C. E. [102] 
Wei (or U), East Central Tibet, [70] 
— (Siberian Nomads), 33 
Wei Si, [109], [124] 
Well of Moses, [58] 



ZUAKA 

WSn (or Min river), [67] 
W6n-Ch'uan-Hsien, izx 
W£n-Shu-Yaan (Literary Book Hall), 146 
White Cloud Mountain, 120 
— Man-Tzu (Su-Mu), 122 
Wilcox, Lieutenant, [70], [77], [109] 
Wind-Cave Pass (Feng-Tung- Kuan), 130 
Wise, (Jovemor of Virginia, [46] 
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, [50], [51] 
Woodthorpe, Colonel, [76] 
Woo-Sung railway, attacks on, 40 
Wu-Hou-Tzu, a temple at Ch'eng-Tu, 

144, M9 
Wu-Shan, gorge, 72 

Wylie, Mr. Alexander, [101 J, [123] 



YACHI, of Marco Polo, [103I 
Ya-Chou, [87 J, [92], [109], [119I, 

[124], [129], 159, x6o 
Ya-ho, the, [87] 
Ya-Lung (Yar-lung, or Jar-lungX course 

of, [83] et seq.y [124), 199 
Yang, General, 254, 257 
Yang-Pi, the, 259 
Yang-Tzu-Chiang, the, see Chin-Sha- 

Chiang. 
Yellow river, the, 30 
Yerkalo, [28], [98] 
Yezd, [38I, [40], [42] 
Yifrin, [44] 

YQ-Kung, the, [26), [84J, [85J, [86] 
Yule, Colonel, meets (Captain Gill, [24] : 

notes by, passim. 
Yung-Chang (Vochan, or Unchan, of 

Marco Polo), [93], 267-274 
Yung-P'ing-Hsien, 264 
Yun-Nan-Fu, [93], [104], [114], [115], [i 16], 

[zx8], [i2x] ; drought at, 350 



ZAGAZIG, execution of murderers at, 
61 
Zia-ucl-din Bami, the historian [93] 
Zuara, [44] 



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